Hopes and Despairs of Archanea
by Cyber Emblem
Summary: A mini-series based upon the lives of lesser character from the original Fire Emblem titles. This shall start as a trilogy for the obscure, with the chapters being about Marisha, Castor, and Phina respectively. Then followed by a trilogy about the Whitewing sisters, and then at least one more chapter about Julian and Lena.
1. Consequences of Whimsy

_Alright guys, here's a new chapter in the Cyber Emblem saga of stories, and a new mindset. Previously, I was iffy about making this mini-series longer than three chapters and including the Whitewing sisters. After a long family trip and some time to organize my thoughts, I've decided that I am definitely going to do that. So I'm going to do the promised trilogy first, then a Whitewing trilogy, then a Julian x Lena story, and then leave this story marked as incomplete to come back to whenever I want to write about Archanean characters._

 _I am also doing something new on my profile page. Do you guys know how with most TV shows, the names of upcoming episodes are listed online ahead of time, along with a brief synopsis? Well, I've decided to do something similar to that on my profile._

 _My mentality is this. I have an utterly ridiculous number of plans for possible stories bouncing around my head at all times. Ever since I finished_ _Crusaders Reborn_ _I have been spending time at the start of each new story babbling about future plans in a frankly, disorganized fashion. Doing this, should help me plan better, and cut down the size of these opening crawls. I tend to feel obligated to tell my readers what I plan on doing. Now instead, of constant long-winded speeches, I just have to say, "look at my profile to see what I have up my sleeve"._

 _Of course, it wouldn't be practical for me to list_ _everything_ _I've come up with, so there are two lists. One that only I can see that I write all my ideas on, and the public one, which will be updated whenever I write a new story/chapter, which will only list between 3-5 things at a time, because I realize that's being more realistic._

 _It also might help me feel less guilty if I want to alternate between stories as it would help my readers have a better expectation of when a new chapter of the story they are following is coming out. Instead of making them think "dammit, when is going to stop writing this other stuff and write what I want again?" I know there is a certain writer on this site that I'm following that I think that about. This way, my readers will have a general expectation._

 _Anyways, enough of my babble, I hope anyone reading this enjoys, and as always, please leave a review._

* * *

She had always been a dreamer; that was what defined her. Ever since she was a little girl, Marisha had been constantly constructing elaborate fantasies about the world around her and how it worked in her mind's eye.

Her parents were none to pleased about it. "Better put a stop to it now, or it shall cause her endless trouble in the future." warned her father. He was in favor of a good paddling if her daydreams got her to distracted from her work, or a heavy dose of hard but true words if the daydreams were outlandish but not immediately harmful to the task at hand.

Marisha's mother agreed with her father on this point and participated in quashing her daydreams where she could. However, HER mother absolutely refused to do the same. Marisha's grandmother pooh-poohed their fears, claiming that it was only natural for a young girl to have fantasies, and that it was a sign of a firm sense of optimism that would help to carry her through life.

While her grandmother did have a point, sadly it was ultimately proven that Marisha's parents had one too, for Marisha's fantasies went far beyond the point of mere optimism, and instead warped the young girl's perception of reality itself to its very core.

Perhaps if her parents had lived, a balance could have been found. After all, having an imagination and being prone to bouts of fancy are not inherently a bad thing. However, due to the death of her parents during the War of Shadows, she was left solely in the care of her grandmother, who let her imagination run rampant. Due to that, her imagination was left without balance, and she never properly learned how to discern the difference between what was fantastical, and what was realistic.

This tragic fact is what ultimately led her to her destiny.

* * *

At first, her imagination endeared her to others. It was one of the things that caught the attention of Lady Lena. After the war, the healer had gone on a tour across the countryside in all the territories, helping where she could. She had met Marisha and her grandmother and sympathized with their plight.

After an extended meeting, Lena had decided that Marisha's general demeanor; her natural optimism and hopeful dreamer nature could help to make her a likeable, if somewhat distractible, healer. Rena figured that she could help her gain some focus. So after discussing the career with her, Lena took Marisha under her wing.

Marisha's grandmother was very glad for this turn of events, for Lady Lena was a noblewoman and well known by the Emperor. Thus, if Marisha was her pupil, it was less likely for General Lang or his men to harass her.

However, one day, Lady Lena suddenly felt something…. sinister, in the air. She decided that Marisha was no longer safe under her care, and had her go home, much to her grandmother's consternation, as Marisha wasn't safe under her care either.

Her only real protection was her youthful appearance, and that wouldn't matter if the soldiers stopped caring about how old a girl looked. It was the appearance of the Altean army that saved her from the fate that her grandmother feared.

Her grandmother practically flung her into the arms of Prince Marth, commenting on how "good a bride" she would make. While Marisha told her that she wasn't ready for that sort of thing yet, she heard those words and latched onto them.

This statement on the part of her grandmother caused the formation a sizeable portion of her fantasies for most of the duration of the war. But it did not form all of her fantasies, for by the time of the royal wedding between Marth and Caeda, she had finally dispelled herself of the notion of marrying the prince, and she gave the two of them her full support.

No, by then she had a different fantasy to pursue, one that would thrust her into the spotlight, one that would see her remembered as one of the greatest healers that ever lived. A fantastical idea of hers… that in truth was so outlandish that the pursuit of it would ultimately doom her.

* * *

To understand her mad plan and her dedication to it, however, one must first understand the impetus, and the general set of factors and circumstances that lead her to believe that she was making a wise decision.

The first factor involved was her friendship with the incorrigible thief, Rickard. Upset over losing a friendship with someone he felt so close to, Rickard was desperate to find a way to get back into Julian's good graces.

Upon discovering that there was pretty, young healer of about his own age in Marth's army, who so happened to be the apprentice of Julian's lady love… well, Rickard saw an opportunity and struck a friendship with the young dreamer.

Marisha's tendency to believe that the romantic ideal reflected reality worked in his favor, and she believed his justifications for his criminal enterprises. He'd simply tell her some variant of "the ends justified the means."

One particular way that he said it once went something like this "When you know that something has to be done, or probably should be done, or even just can be done… just do it. You can regret it later, and by then it'll be to late and the necessary… unpleasant thing is done." This like stuck with her, and affected her ultimate decision.

This line of thinking was, of course, a slippery slope. Julian probably could have put a stop to it, however while he did take some time to call Rickard out on his return to thievery, he was distracted and did not actually pay the little thief to much mind, and he did not realize just how friendly the two had gotten.

The slope worsened for Marisha once the Altean army lay ahold of the thief staff and handed it to her. While the concept of the stave initially caused her some discomfort, Rickard used the previously mentioned speech to help ease her conscience. She was stealing for the good of the Altean army, and this unintentionally established in her mind that "smaller" crimes could be justified.

Then, at a later date, the Hammerne staff was placed into her hands as well. A staff that could immediately repair all the damages to any weapon that she decided to use it upon; such a fascinating concept! Marisha knew very well that it could not work on other staves, but that left a burning question in her mind. What if it could?

For a while, she merely pondered this question casually… until the appearance of the Aum staff. The appearance of such an item captured her imagination; a delicate staff that could only bear a single use, but could resurrect those who had fallen in battle. So fascinated was she by this concept, that she completely missed the part where it was explained that it could only be used in a certain place and by certain people.

She instead focused on the "it only had one use" aspect, and then regarded the Hammerne staff in her hand and her mind went into overdrive. She was sure that a way could be found to make it repair staves as well as weapons. What if she were the one to figure it out? What if as a result of figuring out how to make the Hammerne staff repair other staves, she were to discover the secret to endlessly repairing the Aum staff?

She began to fantasize about what that would mean for her, for the world. Her imagination and her idealism overtook her logic, and by the time of the royal wedding, she had made her fateful decision.

She would keep both the Hammerne staff and the thief staff, and use the later to steal the Aum staff at some point. She would go someplace secluded and study magic and learn the secrets of the staves. Then she would return home triumphantly, Aum staff in hand, and render war death a thing of the past. She'd be remembered as a savior, an angel of life.

As Marisha repeatedly replayed this delusional scenario in her mind, she became more and more convinced that if she acted, what she imagined would reflect reality. She believed that it was the right thing to do, so she was determined to do it.

Even so, she still retained just enough common sense to realize that if she told anyone of her plan, they would try to stop her (Though sadly she did not have enough sense to think long and hard about WHY they would try to stop her).

Thus, she told nobody, not even Rickard, even though she greatly desired his expertise. In his case, it wasn't necessarily because she believed that he'd try to stop her. She hadn't spent time around him in a while, but she still knew that over time, several members of the army had gotten wise to his ways, and so she figured, he'd be watched and would crack under pressure if Julian got involved in interrogating him, which would be really dangerous for her plan.

So she decided to come up with the heist on her own. That would certainly impress Rickard, wouldn't it? How unfortunate it was that she chose not to speak to him, as for despite how cheeky and full of gall the young thief was, Rickard still retained enough common sense to know that Marisha's scheme was utterly hare-brained, and he actually would've burst her bubble.

If he had told her off and she had ignored him, and gone off and done it anyways, then later her companions would've gotten a lead on her. Perhaps Rickard would've finally learned of the consequences to his actions. As it was, he never knew, and he never learned his lesson.

* * *

Shortly after the royal wedding, Marisha finally put her plan into action. Lady Lena was visiting the royal couple at their palace in Archanea, and Marisha was accompanying her. At the same time, Marth's sister, the Lady Elice, was staying there for an extended visit. As Marisha's luck would have it, she had brought the Aum staff with her and was keeping it in a locked chest inside of her chambers. That would make stealing it with the thief staff convenient. As for an escape clause, she had one readily prepared.

Ever since the war had ended, Marisha had been very noticeably restless. Noticeable enough that Lena had actually made a passing comment on it once or twice. However, she was unaware of the cause. She had not been around during the War of Shadows in order to witness how Marisha had changed, and Julian had never paid Marisha much mind, and so he hadn't realized how she had been influenced during the war.

Thus, Lena was under the mistaken assumption that Marisha's restlessness was related to an independence issue. That her pupil had been without her for so long, that she was chaffing now that she was under her hand once more. Lena actually said as much aloud.

Thus, when Marisha told Lena that she wanted to travel to Khadein on her own, Lena simply took this as an indication that her fledgling pupil wanted to leave the nest and wanted to go in her own direction. Thus, the humble healer reluctantly arranged a trip to the magical capital. She never suspected the trick.

The night before Marisha was set to leave, she used the thief staff to steal the Aum staff. The thief staff promptly broke. Undeterred, as her staffs were usually carefully and thickly wrapped anyways, she hid the broken staff in her cloak, and covered the Aum staff in the thief staff's usual coverings. Then she went to the lady Elice's chambers to say her goodbyes.

As fate would have it, the theft of the Aum staff had yet to be noticed, and while they were talking, Elice was called away, leaving Marisha unattended. She seized the opportunity to quickly put the thief staff back together and place it in the Aum staff's box and secure it. All of this she managed with time to spare.

Soon, she was on her way to Khadein. Nobody was the wiser that she actually wasn't. Oh she was going to stop at the desert country's capital for a short time, but a part of her was worried about her theft being discovered. Thus, in actuality she was going to the port and taking a ship to Valentia.

She was in the magic city for about a week before she boarded a ship, and while she was there, she actually met a young mage from Valentia. He was a bit cold in demeanor, and Marisha couldn't quite remember his name (It was Ridge or Precipice, or something similar), but he was apparently old friends with the new monarchs over there, and his reports of the magic from his homeland captured her imagination and settled in her mind that going to Valentia was the right decision.

Magic that didn't require the use of breakable tomes with expendable ink? Fountains that could raise the dead? Staffs that didn't break after a set number of uses? That sounded exactly like what she needed. So with renewed purpose, she set sail.

* * *

In the meantime, the theft of the Aum staff was discovered. Initially, there was confusion over the identity of the staff that had replaced it, for the thief staff had not actually seen use or the light of day in quite some time. Lena and Elice had never actually seen Marisha uncover it before, so they did not recognize it.

Thus it took a little while before the identity of the staff and the identity of its owner were confirmed. Once they were, however, panic ensued, and Lena finally realized that her pupil's restlessness did not have the root that she had believed it had.

At first, they were confused that Marisha had the capability to do this, but then Marth brought up her use of the thief staff of the war. He also mentioned how once when he had asked her if she needed help with any guilt feelings she might be having, she told him that she was already "getting help from someone who knew what it was like to steal", and he had presumed she meant Julian.

With that, Julian finally connected the dots about who Rickard had been hanging out with during the war and began to berate himself for missing that. So while Rickard was called in, and messengers were sent to the magic city and as they waited for them to arrive, they tried to rationalize her actions.

Maybe she had gone to Khadein in order to try to study it in secret and improve upon it! Well that did sound like an outlandish scheme that she would come up with, and while she did steal, it would be hard to judge her if her motives were purely driven by goodwill and irrationality.

Then word came to them that Marisha had been in the magic city for about a week and then vanished. Thus, they began to think and fear the worst about Rickard's influence upon her. Thus, and international girl-hunt was initiated for her, but to no avail, for she was no longer anywhere in Archanea.

If they had started their hunt earlier, they might have gotten a lead from Kliff, but by the time the hunt had started, he had already forgotten about her. The way she had questioned him about his homeland had indicated to him only normal fascination, not a desire to go there. Thus he was not able to provide crucial information to the searchers.

* * *

She started her research on the isles to the east of the continent. There were plenty of mages there, and they had the abilities that she had been promised, but when it came to actually learning spells from them, she was just to impatient. She already knew the variants from back home, and these were just basics, why would she need to learn them anew? So, simply because it wasn't exactly what she was looking for, she moved on to the mainland.

She wandered north, towards the desert, and then she got lost. Then she was met with some friendly travellers who brought her before a man who referred to himself as the king of the mercenaries.

An odd concept in her mind, but he was genial enough, if a bit flirty. Once she explained her cover story to him, he was willing to help her out, and he recommended to her a couple of places where she could search. He mentioned a village of mages somewhere in the western part of Zofia, he wasn't certain of its exact location. He also brought up the northern kingdom of Rigel and how militaristic it used to be and how that factor might or might not be useful.

He mentioned a hidden village in a place called the Sage's Hamlet were he met a few mages that might be able to teacher her something. Since it was clear to Marisha that this was closer and he actually knew where that was, she would go there.

She also noticed that one of his men mentioned someplace or someone called "Nuibaba" and was immediately hushed. She decided to keep that bit of information tucked into the back of her mind for later, as it might prove useful.

So, she left the "court" of the mercenary king and followed his directions north into Rigel and to the Sage's Hamlet. They were a bit suspicious of her motives, but they were willing to let her study under observation. So she stayed there for several months.

She studied the properties of her staves, and she also got the opportunity to look at one of the infamous resurrection fountains at one point. This achieved nothing.

Eventually, she got fed up with her own lack of progress. She should've realized that she was undertaking an impossible task, and that should have broken her delusions, but still she held onto them as strongly as ever. She decided that she wasn't going to learn anything there, so she decided to move again, and so she chose her final destination.

In her time at the Sage's Hamlet, she had found out what Nuibaba's Mansion was. Though the witch had been slain during Rigel's war of conquest a couple of years previously, most still stayed clear of the place.

There was a lot of bad memories and dark magic surrounding that manor, and it was rumored that the remnants of the Duma faithful were hiding out nearby. Ignoring all warnings and common sense, like avoiding the place called "Fear Mountain", Marisha decided to see if she could find any research by the old witch hidden in the shelves of the manor that she could be used.

After all, wasn't it rumored that she had lived for over a century and yet remained young and beautiful? She once again decided to leave without telling her true motives or destination to anyone, though this time, however, she packed her things and silently left the village without saying a word to anyone.

* * *

She never reached her destination proper. As it turned out, the rumors about the remnants of the Duma faithful lurking near the mansion were true. Even though their god and their high priest had both fallen. A small number remained and were looking for recruits, willing or otherwise, hoping to attempt some kind of resurgence.

While not a strong unit in of themselves, they had recruited a number of ruthless mercenaries to aid them. Whether she was willing or not, a young woman with clear magical potential was to good an opportunity passing alone near their territory was to good an opportunity to pass up.

She couldn't fight the thugs off, and she was taken prisoner and put in a cell with the other young ladies that the Duma faithful had captured recently. Luckily for these girls however, they weren't under heavy guard, and Marisha's time with Rickard had taught her how to pick a lock. Thus she helped to engineer their escape.

While these girls had their priorities straight and escaped to freedom, Marisha went hunting for her precious staves and "research".

Just as she found her things and laid her hands on the Aum staff, however, she was discovered and forced to flee, with only that single staff and a fire tome she managed to scoop up in hand. A large thug chased her outside and onto some scaffolding where she found herself trapped without any options of running.

She flung a fireball at his face "Stay back!" she warned

"Now lassie, why'd you have to go and make yourself so troublesome?" asked the thug, who'd been simply annoyed by the flame. "I'm going to have to take you back now, and you can bet that the bosses are going to be a bit less friendly with you from now on. Neither are the men, they're going to have to let us…"

The man stopped and then, a wicked grin crossed his face "I have to bring you back, but at this point, I don't necessarily have to bring you back _undamaged_ , and considering what you've done, I don't think that anybody will mind." then he rushed forward and seized her.

It took her a few seconds, but not many, before the horror of what he intended dawned on Marisha. She desperately began to look for a way out. She looked at the edge of the scaffolding and got an idea.

There was a narrow outcropping to the cliff near the end and the support structure looked burnable. She could set the structures on fire and distract the man and let him fall while she jumped to safety. The girls would come back with a rescue team, and she'd be heralded as a hero.

Maybe this is what she needed. Maybe she didn't need to achieve something with the Aum staff to be somebody! Maybe she didn't need it to do something important. Visions of a happy ending flashed before her eyes, and so she executed her plan.

With a few well-placed kicks and fireballs, she was out of the man's grasp and the scaffolding was aflame. She started to run and prepared her legs for her leap… and reality chose that moment to come crashing back down around her.

As she neared the edge and bent her legs, the platform gave way beneath and _flipped_. The thug was flung at the cliff wall and crashed into it at full speed, and then fell onto the ledge that Marisha had tried to jump to. He hit it with such force that it crumbled and gave way beneath him and he tumbled head over heals down the cliff face.

Meanwhile, Marisha fell through the scaffolding, which collapsed under the sudden added weight of its top portion burning and collapsing onto the rest of it. Girl, staff, and scaffolding all plummeted to the ground.

Marisha had survived the impact, but chronically delusional or not, even she knew that she would not survive such injuries for long.

The Aum staff was still tightly gripped in her hands, and one last desperate, fantastical idea entered her head. Since the Aum Staff could revive the dead, then it must also have the power to heal any injury! It could save her! She tried to use it… but nothing happened.

With the last of her strength, she turned her head, and she saw that she was only holding onto part of the staff. It had shattered upon impact.

Finally, Marisha's bubble of fantasies burst and the full reality of the situation she had gotten herself in hit her all at once. She spent her last moments crying out in remorse, asking for everybody she knew to forgive her for her foolishness.

Shortly after she had died, the thug's friends came down from the mountain to collect his body in order to give him a proper burial. When they saw that she had died too, they collected the pieces of the Aum staff, thinking that they may still be valuable, and then gave their last disrespect to the girl who had caused them so much trouble.

A day or so later, a revenge party sent by the escaped girls came by and found Marisha's body in a deplorable state. They made her presentable and brought her back to the village where she was buried with respect, to be forever remembered as an unknown hero by those who lived there. Meanwhile those who knew her in life never knew what had happened to the whimsical healer that they had feared had become a delinquent.


	2. For the Need of Coin

_Yea, I know it's been a while. About a month since I last made an update. I got a bit discouraged after the last two stories that I wrote got few views and no reviews (well, Fall of Ricard Highwind did get a review, but according to the traffic stats it only has 8 views, so…) as a result… I've been stalling and doing other stuff, such as continuing work on my non-fanfiction "project". But there is still plenty of fanfiction that I want to write, so I couldn't stay away, so I'm back!_

 _Anyways, I'm back at school now for my final semester, but hey, nothing like a rigorous schedule to get me back on track! Though of course, school-work WILL take priority… anyways, next time I'm writing a new chapter for a fic that has been on hiatus for about two years, then coming back here. I hope those of you who read this enjoy! As a reminder, this is a one-shot about Castor (the archer that Caeda recruits early in the first game)._

 _P.S. I also updated the first chapter of this fic, as well as making an update/retcon to the very first chapter of Crusaders Reborn, so you might want to go check that out!_

* * *

They had never had very much money. Of course, that had always been a problem, but not one that they couldn't get around with some hard work and saving. But then, their father abandoned the family while their mother was pregnant with the ninth child.

The child did not make it and while mother survived… she was barely hanging on. She became ill, horribly ill with a wasting sickness. The kind of sickness that takes its time in killing a person, giving them time and hope to be cured, but saps away money at a rapid rate.

The eldest children knew that something had to be done about their situation. They couldn't let her die, she was their mother, and over half the family was still to young to fend for itself. If their father had stuck around, they would have turned to him at this time for guidance.

But he had not stuck around. The pressure of a family that was growing physically but not financially had gotten to him. After years of "warning" his wife not to add to the family, and her repeatedly "failing to heed" those warnings, he had finally left them all behind, without once considering that it might've been his fault that his family had grown so unmanageably large.

Thus, it fell to the eldest children to support the family. Castor had always been good with a bow. He had always assisted his father bring food to the table before his abrupt departure. Now that he was desperate, he decided that it was time for his sharpshooting skills to take a turn for the mercenary.

Initially, it did not work out very well, with him only getting the occasional job with wages that made the wait in between the jobs not worth it, leaving him more than once in a state of hunger or even dehydration.

His first stroke of luck however, struck him when he was in such a state. He was discovered by a small party that was planning on raiding the vaults of the Archanean palace and invited to join the raid. Happy to oblige his rescues and take the opportunity to help his family he took them up on it. Afterwards, he returned home with the cash he got in exchange for his share of the spoils.

Of course, by this time, his mother's condition had gotten worse and the family overall had gotten needier, so he ventured out once more to find some work. He found some in a less than savory fashion. He went to Galder and joined the local band of pirates. It clashed with his code of ethics, but he was desperate, and what did one man's morals matter when his entire family was at stake?

Fortunately for him, the ethical debate over what he'd have to do in his new job was ended for her rather quickly. Shortly after he got the job, the War of Shadows was gathering steam and his presence at Galder was noticed by Princess Caeda, effectively putting an end to his career as a pirate.

* * *

How did it happen that a common man should be known by the royalty? Especially a common man who was in such a position as he was? Well, the gods have a funny way of maneuvering the odds.

Castor's family was indigenous to Talys, and once, while he and his father were on a hunting trip, Castor had gotten separated from his father and utterly lost in the woods. Not knowing what else to do, Castor had continued hunting, and hoped that his father would find his pile of animals.

As it happened, his father was some distance away so he did not stumble across his pile, but Castor had accidently stumbled into the royal hunting grounds for the Talys royals. Thus, one of the local guards found his pile instead. The guard had roughly brought him and his kills to the palace and thrown him before the king.

Once the guard had stopped yelling and Castor was allowed to explain himself, the king's features softened. It was easy to tell that Castor had made an honest mistake and wasn't lying about what he had been doing. Caeda had happened to be there and pleaded for his release.

Not needing any convincing, the king had Castor returned to town with some money and his game. Knowing even then how ruthless his father was, and that he might try to exploit the friendly connection that he had made with the royals, he had simply told his father when he found him that some "nice people helped me find my way back and gave me some money too."

His father was none the wiser for it, even when Castor stayed somewhat in touch with the princess after that. In fact, when his father had abandoned the family, he was actually working a job that Caeda had helped him get. The pay, however, was simply not enough to provide for mother, and so he had quit the job in order to look for more lucrative enterprises. He had not told Caeda of this, as he had felt that he had asked enough of the royals as it was, and he was afraid that it would look like he was looking for handouts.

Well, when Caeda finally learned of his plight, she was more than willing to help him, despite his betrayal of her trust. As a result… how could he not led her his aid? So he fought a war for her sake. When they were done, he returned home with enough money to pay for his mother's medical expenses.

He even had some money left over, so he decided to buy some clothes that he knew that his eldest sister, Leen, had been wanting for a while. He returned home in high spirits, but when he returned home… Leen was not there.

Apparently, one day after a long stretch of no solid income coming in, Leen had left home in a hurry, a desperate look in her eyes. She had not returned home that night. Instead, a shady looking man had stopped by with a sizeable amount of cash and a note written in Leen's barely legible scrawl. "Srry. Was Nly way." the man had offered no explanation and had left promptly.

Fearing the absolute worst, Castor asked his family for details about what Leen had been up to just prior to her disappearance, and for details about the man who had delivered the money. Using those details, he ran a trace, with a little help with the connections he had made.

The young man who had recruited Castor for the raid on the Archanean palace had also happened to be recruited into the army after Castor was and had fought alongside him. Castor used that connection to society's underbelly now and contacted him.

Within a month, he had results, and they were as bad as he had feared. That man had been involved with slave traders. Leen had sold herself away in order to provide for her family when Castor had taken to long in sending a fresh supply of coin home. Knowing that this information might very well kill his mother in her weakened state, he told her nothing of the discovery, only saying that he had a lead that he was going to follow.

Thus began many weeks of searching. Apparently, she had first been sold to a noble family in Archanea who had used the chaos of the war to keep slaves instead of servants. But apparently, they had gotten rid of Leen because she hadn't been "up to their standards", and sold her southeast.

They had been rather upfront about it, clearly thinking that Castor and his sister were garbage who could not touch them. They would learn differently. As soon as Castor left their presence, he sent a report about their wartime actions to Princess Caeda, and wrote about how he saw evidence that they were keeping slaves even now. He knew full well that she would report it to her friend, Empress Nyna and have them pay dearly for their actions.

So he continued to trace his sister's path, and he continued to hear similar stories and he began to wonder, what sort of standards did these slavemasters have? Leen had never been terrible at housework! She had never been fantastic but she had always done a passable job! Now he was even more worried.

Eventually, his search took him to Port Warren, right into the bad part of town. After forcing his way into the not-so-hidden basement of a bar of ill repute, his worst fears were realized. He found Leen lying on the floor, in an utterly deplorable state. He tried speaking to her but she was delirious, and she barely recognized him. She kept bursting out in tears, and there was barely a spark of life in her.

"It's ok. It's ok. It's going to be alright. It's going to be alright…" said Castor repeatedly, hugging her and cradling her in his arms. But it wasn't going to be. He had found her while she was on her last legs, and she expired shortly thereafter.

He carried her body out into the public part of the bar and loudly called out "Tell me! Who. Did. This. To. My. Sister?!" all conversations ended and all eyes were now squarely on Castor.

"Shout all you want, baby-face. Nobody thinks that you're intimidating." muttered a scar-faced, eye-patch wearing thug sitting on a stool.

Castor put Leen down and fired an arrow through the thug's mug and into his hand, then fired another into his shoulder. He then snatched another arrow out of his quiver and marched up to him while he was still reeling in pain, and buried the point about an inch into the eyepatch. Then he hauled him over the bar.

"Don't whine, you clearly weren't using that eye anyways." Castor told him. "Alright, if none of you want to wind up like _this_ asshole, then you'll tell me who's responsible for my sister winding up like this." he said, indicating Leen's corpse on the floor.

Surprisingly, the forthcoming one was the bartender. "Rugen. You're looking for Sir Rugen. He's rather infamous for his escapades with helpless women. When he's done with them, he pays his men to dump them into establishments like mine and 'pays' us to keep our mouths shut. They don't even pay well, its more a threat than compensation. He's forcing us to deal with the consequences, not giving a damn about what it does to our reputations." he then proceeded to tell Castor everything he knew about Rugen.

Castor put some money on the table "for his medical expenses. I was a bit harsh." he said, indicating the man that he had maimed, then he gently picked Leen off the floor and walked out the door.

One of the patrons looked at the bartender "You gave him the info that easily? Sure, he messed Clym up, but I don't think that he would've actually killed anybody. He looked too much like a good kid for that."

The bartender shook his head "You've clearly never seen a good man snap. The best thing that you want to do is to give them what they want, then get the hell out of dodge. Let me tell you, one of the most likely things to cause a good man to snap is for lasting harm to come to family. Judging by these wounds on Clym, the kid clearly knows what he's doing with that bow of his, so I judged it best to give him what he wanted. Besides, maybe he can finally take care of Rugen for us, won't that be a blessing?"

The patron looked uncomfortable "so… you think that kid is going to give Rugen what's coming to him?" the bartender nodded "Umm… should we report this?"

"Hell NO!" shouted the bar unanimously, including Clym. Sir Rugen was a well-hated figure in Port Warren.

* * *

Sir Rugen was out on one of his regular "walks". Said walks generally had him wearing loose clothing and carrying plenty of change and took him by the seedier parts of town. Sometimes he spent an excessive amount of money and some men had to be called from home in order to "help" him with a small "problem" that he had come across.

What he was actually doing was barely a secret, and yet he seemed to keep the local authorities fooled. Either that or they were in his pocket financially or through blackmail. He hadn't gotten the title "sir" by being a gentleman.

As he was out on his "walk", halfway between home and the city, he came across a body lying in the middle of the path. Normally, he would have steered clear of it, but something about it seemed… familiar. So he was compelled to take a closer look. He gasped and recoiled in shock and horror. He knew this corpse!

At the end of the war, he had gone quickly to the slave markets to see if he could get any good last minute deals, and his eyes had fallen on this pretty, ripe young thing. She'd apparently first been sold early in the war, but had been moved from place to place as she never been deemed good enough at her assigned tasks and deemed to be not of much use.

Well, Rugen could instantly see a good use for her that somehow none of them had considered! Well, that was their misfortune. Oh she had resisted it at first, but nothing a little beating couldn't solve. He'd kept her for a few months, but eventually, she couldn't take it any more, so he'd had one of his most loyal servants take her to a quiet place so she could expire out of the way, away from prying eyes. What the hell was she doing here?

"Dammit Joffre, you were supposed to properly dispose of her." muttered Sir Rugen out loud. A right hook came out of nowhere and struck him across the face.

"You admit it! You admit it you son of a bitch!" screamed Castor.

"So what if I do?" asked Sir Rugen, spitting out blood "What's so important about a whore slave that you'd dare attack me? Do you know-"

He was silenced by a series of blows that lay him flat and Castor screaming " **SHE. WAS. MY. SISTER!** " at the top of his lungs. "And she wasn't a whore! You used her as one. You took advantage of her position as a slave, after she was forced to sell herself away in order to provide for our family while I was away trying to do the same." he said, tears streaking down his cheek.

"I didn't come back in time to save her, but I am here now, in time to avenge her. You are going to get what you deserve, Rugen. A life for a life." he declared, drawing his bow.

Sir Rugen picked himself off the floor and drew himself up to his full height, and laughed "Sure kid. Go ahead and try." Castor narrowed his eyes "Beating me up for revenge is one thing, but murder? Look at you, that kind of thing doesn't come naturally to a country boy like you. What could you possibly know about killing a man?" he asked smugly.

Castor hesitated for one second and one second only. Then fired the arrow and it lodged itself in sir Rugen's chest. The smug grin immediately dissipated. "I fought in the War of Shadows. I was recruited by Princess Caeda herself, when she convinced me to leave my position as a member of the Galder pirates. You aren't the first man that I've killed. You aren't special."

He fired another arrow into Rugen's chest "I did used to frequently question the morality of what I was doing, especially since I knew that there were plenty of people who fought for similar or even better motives than I did. As time has passed, I've grown increasingly numb to it. Sometimes I still shed tears for and pray for those unknown innocents that I know that I've probably killed. I'm glad for that, it tells me that I still have a soul. But for you, _Sir_ Rugen…"

Castor fired a third arrow into his chest and Rugen fell to his knees, gurgling but still somehow still barely alive. "I shall shed no tears and spare no prayers, nor shall I loose any sleep over you whatsoever. For in the short time I've known about you, I've learned enough to know that no one shall mourn your passing. Goodbye Rugen, I hope one of Leen's eternal rewards is to stir your cauldron in Hell." then he shot Rugen in the head.

Then he broke down and wept. Wept for his sister. Once he was done, he picked himself off the ground, filled with a new resolve. He searched Rugen's pockets for valuables and pocketed everything that he found. He made a vow then and there, with any god that would listen as his witness.

"Never again. Never again will the need for coin in my household be so bad that such a tragedy will ever strike us again. I don't care what I have to do to secure us the money that we need, I'll do it. I don't care if I'll wind up damning my soul in the process. If I can save theirs in the process, then losing my soul is a worthy sacrifice." He lived by that vow until his dying day.


	3. Start of the First Dancer

**_Hey, if you are looking through and say, hey, I read this before. Yea, this was the first chapter of this fic. I deleted it and made it the third chapter as I felt it was the weakest part and it was negatively affecting my readership by being part one. I didn't want to get rid of it entirely, so I moved it here._**

 _I had a little setback when writing this chapter. I was about nine hundred words in when I realized that the "Warren" that Phina mentions she is from in her introduction is almost certainly_ _ **Port**_ _Warren from the first game, (which I didn't remember the name of because I haven't played Shadow Dragon in a couple of years) and not some random unseen village in an unidentified country. By that point I had written an entire section about it being "randomly big for it's location" and made a section about her not knowing what country it was actually in and BSing her way around not knowing by simply saying that she was a Warren citizen, since everybody somehow knew where that was and so she could get away with it… only to finally stumble across THAT piece of info after several previous searches on the wiki looking for a location called "Warren" not turning it up. Which completely and utterly ruined the joke. Imagine my reaction._

 _P.S. I realize now that this first chapter was not all that good. Update time for quality control reasons! Hopefully I made it just a little better! I may expand upon this even more on a later date in order to make it even better._

* * *

It hadn't always seemed like she was destined to become a dancer. Phina was actually born as a minor member of the nobility in Archanea. Not many had heard of her family name sure, but at the time of her arrival, it still had seemed as if her future was assured.

But war has a funny way of completely demolishing assured futures. A war cost her her birthright, leaving not a trace of her ancestral home or familial connections. It wasn't even Medeus's war, it was a petty side conflict sometime before it, but it cost her all the same.

As she grew up, her caretakers had to gradually sell off any finery that they had, until eventually, all that she had left that hinted at her noble birth was a single rapier with a fancy hilt, and even then, all the gilding was sold away for supplies and only the blade remained for self-defense purposes. A purpose that was sorely needed, sadly, as the subsequent continent-wide wars made criminal enterprises rampant. Now, while logic would've dictated that she be well trained in the ways of the sword, not all of the servants who were caring for her were well versed in the ways of logic.

Due to them, Phina was stupidly not fully trained in combat. A result of lingering pride that some of the servants still had in their old household, even if it had not been a particularly powerful one at the time of its fall. "Besides", they argued "she is still a small girl, so she could not actually ward away somebody determined." While this proved to be a somewhat effective argument in the proud's favor, those who were determined that she learn at least basic swordsmanship, convinced the dumbly stubborn that it did help to serve as a deterrent whenever she traveled, especially if it _looked_ like she knew how to handle it.

This attitude, of course lead to them dying off one by one. Some fell to disease, while others fell to determined criminals who weren't deterred by a small group where everybody, including the little girl, was carrying a sword. And there were multiple groups like this, and despite it all, the stubborn refused to cave in.

As a result, by the time that Phina was twelve, all that she had left was a single ailing servant, Mara, who had been in the "don't train her" group. As well as her company and the sword, all that she gad was a vague sense that she once lived in a big house and a memory that there used to be a lot of people around her.

* * *

Eventually, Mara couldn't travel anymore, and so they had to settle down in the first big city that they came across. That just happened to be Port Warren. Of course, because of Mara's stubborn nature, they ran into a couple of problems. Despite it being a large commercial town with plenty of people living on the streets and working together to find shelter, she still couldn't bring herself to reduce them to that level.

No, they had gotten by all these years by finding a house to live in, so with the gods as her witness, they needed to find a house. After days of an exhaustive search kindly woman provided them with a place to live. Of course they couldn't get away with living in a house in a large town like this without doing something to earn a living, especially since soon after this, Mara got sicker and eventually died. The extended period of wandering the city without rest looking for a house to stay in had not helped her condition in any way whatsoever.

That is why Phina had begun dancing. As it happened, dancers were one of the main sources of entertainment in that city. Thus, there was a troupe of entertainers and dancers that made its home base right there in Warren. When Phina and Mara had first come to the town, the troupe just happened to be home from their latest tour, and was putting on a show. Phina was enraptured by the dancer's performances, and tried to imitate them at home (somewhat to Mara's dismay).

Eventually, when they settled in the house and Mara was dying, (though neither of them quite realized it) Phina went to them and asked to work. The entertainers were quickly smitten with her cheerful disposition, and her attitude, and decided to at least humor her request and see if she had any performing talent, especially once they learned why she was so determined to work for them. They quickly found that she did indeed have talent, and so she was taken in as a child dancer.

Phina was incredibly lucky. In a city such as Port Warren and especially at such a young age, her naive enthusiasm could have easily been taken advantage of, especially if the troupe leader was a scumbag. However, the man in charge of the entire program was NOT a scumbag. Not a pervert in the slightest, he put the entire troupe together out of love for the arts, and was very liberal with the dress code, letting the dancers have the biggest say in what they got to wear.

So when, over the subsequent years that she worked for them, Phina expressed her desire to dress conservatively for her performances, (out of a sense of modesty and style preserved from her earliest days in a noble household) she was met with no resistance whatsoever from her superiors.

The troupe leader's upstanding character was why the troupe members were so eager and willing to let her in, instead of trying to ward away a naïve, foolish girl from a potentially damaging life. They were unceasingly friendly and supportive towards her, especially after they learned Mara died. In fact, they talked her into moving out of the house and in with them, which she did. Phina was happy working with them, and never would have separated from them willingly.

* * *

So it was under unwilling circumstances that she was separated from them near the Raman shrine during the War of the Heroes. The Warren troupe had just completed a show at a town a few miles away and they had some downtime. Thus, Phina decided to go shopping with one of her companions.

However, at about this time, the Altean army was approaching from the south, drawing the attention of the local military away from this area, and the local bandits knew it.

So while Phina and her companion were at the bazaar, the bandits attacked, and they were forced to flee the town. When they were almost out, however, a big bandit stepped out of the shadows and into their path. Phina nimbly ducked out of the way and kept running, and didn't look back until almost a minute later when she heard a scream.

That was she realized that she was suddenly all alone. Unable to go back, and not doubting for a second that her friend was dead, (with any other possibilities failing to cross her mind) and not doubting that her troupe had fled the town as well, she turned about and kept running. She was hoping to run into her troupe eventually, despite only having a vague sense of where they were supposed to be going next in her mind.

Due to this, she went the wrong direction and was thus unable to find them, and as a result was on the run for about a day. She found a dilapidated shanty to rest in and collapsed there for the night. Unfortunately for her this just so happened to be rather near the Raman shrine and so she drew the eye of even more bandits.

Thus she only got a very brief rest before she was on the run again. Eventually, early on the next morning, she spotted someone. She decided to approach this someone and request his aid because he didn't look like a thief.

He stood apart from them, and any other human beings in the area, long hair flowing in the wind, killing edge strapped to his side, and a scarlet outer-garment boldly contrasting with what she had seen of the bandits thus far.

So she called out to him and ran to his side "Please help me, the thieves, they are going to-!" The man turned to her with such a harsh, icy glare that she immediately stopped running and cut herself short.

She whimpered a little then huffed and said "No! It can't be! You're… one of them as well?" she asked, backing away slowly, and then stumbling and falling on her rear. A pained expression came across her face, but not from the fall.

She sounded like she was about to cry out, but then choked on it. "Fine! Do your worst!" she said, raising her arms "If you must, kill me, do it quickly!"

The man gave her a look. It remained serious, but at the same time it looked almost… incredulous? As if he was saying, "You're to young and naïve to know what 'my worst' is, aren't you?" with his eyes.

His expression softened… ever so slightly, and then he growled "Girl… get behind me. The Altean army is to the south of this forest, I'll take you to them."

Phina was confused "You… you mean that you're going to help me?" relief washed over her "You mean that you're not with the thieves?"

"I was… until just now. I find hurting helpless women... distasteful. Besides, there's someone in the Altean army that I want to see, and this gives me an alibi. That is all. Now come."

Now a smile grew on Phina's face, and she began to guess at OTHER reasons why he might be helping her. This only succeeded in ticking him off and stopping her with a harsh "If you want to live, then shut up and come with me."

"Yes sir." she squeaked, obeying due to the harshness of the tone and out of fear of what disobedience may bring.

Thus a new era of Phina's life had begun, one where her dancing would be used for a new purpose. She wouldn't find her troupe for the time being, but that quickly stopped mattering to her.

By the time that the war had ended, she had decided on a new course for her life, one that she would pursue relentlessly, even if it meant that she would travel to the ends of the earth and even drop off the face of it to achieve her goal.


	4. A Whitewing Settles

_Sorry that I haven't posted anything in two months. Let's just say that it's my final semester in college, and... recent events discouraged me from spending time developing my fanfiction plans. This is a pretty hectic time for me, so I don't know when I'll keep a somewhat consistent schedule. However, what I already put on my profile is going to stay consistent, despite the hiatus. As for this fic... I actually wrote half of it before my hiatus, half of it recently, so if you feel a tonal shift, that is the reason. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy my attempt to give Catria a happy ending._

 _P.S. What I wound up going with is actually pretty different from my original idea. Warren was going to court her, and Catria would just go with it and marry him, even though she didn't particularly care for him in that way. She just figured that she Palla needed to get over Abel and she needed to set an example. She wouldn't have been either happy nor upset by her decision. She would have simply put her emotions to the side and "settled" for him. Hence the original meaning of the title. I eventually decided to go with something different. For the record, I did not choose the names for the OC's at random. See if you can figure out what my thought process was in naming her suitor (Here's a hint. Look at the etymology section of her name on the wiki, and think of famous people with both her and his name)._

 _P.P.S. The outfit that I went into detail describing near the end? It's based on a piece of fan art featuring Catria that I found on pixiv back when FE Heroes was first doing its seasonal banners. I would make it the profile pic for this pic, but I don't know how to get permission, so I'm not risking anything. It's still up on the site if you want to look. Its probably on the fourth or fifth page of her character profile. You can't miss it, it features Catria holding a giant spoon._

* * *

She had taken note of the young man even before his friends had started goading him to go speak to her. Regularly when she was in attendance at that establishment, he was also there. When he noticed her, he would look her way. If he realized that she had noticed her glance, he would smile and nod, then go back to his business. He never once tried to approach her.

Regardless, Catria was certain that the young man had _some_ kind of fascination with her. After all, he never once failed to notice her presence, and it always seemed to affect his behavior as far as she could observe. She was not the only one who noticed this, which is how the young man wound up being literally dragged towards her by his utterly drunk, utterly unsubtle friends. He kept escaping from them and trying to return to his seat, but they kept shoving him off of it and pushing him towards her.

She debated between leaving and ending his misery, or letting him get put in the chair across from her, or approaching them herself and sating the curiosity that had gradually arisen within her. She eventually decided on the later option and approached the table and sat across from the young man. His friends all grinned mischievously and snickered, then slunk away as quickly as their drunken bodies enabled them.

Catria studied the young man as he looked nervously at her. He was somewhat lithe in appearance, he clearly had muscles but they weren't very bulky, and he had no visible scars, so he clearly wasn't the strongest nor toughest guy around. Not that that meant he was to be underestimated, as she noted that he was wearing light armor underneath his cloak, bearing the mark of an Altean cavalryman. Curious, but not a complete surprise.

After the War of Heroes, in an effort to strengthen ties, men and women from each of the different nations of Archanea were sent to one another in order to help rebuild. It was an attempt to strengthen ties between the nations by exposing them to different cultures in a friendly, local sort of way. It was a volunteer program (in an attempt to curb resentment over conscripts being forced anywhere they didn't want to go, and to assure the population it wasn't martial law), and since pretty much every major country was affected, not that many actually volunteered.

So, this young man was an Altean volunteer in Macedon. He looked Altean he... he looked kind of like Marth. The build was similar, and then... He had blue hair and blue eyes. He looked like he could be related to Marth. Catria refused to let herself dwell on that. As the young man coughed nervously and spoke to her. "I... apologize for that, Lady Catria. Their behavior is deplorable, and they have the wrong idea."

Catria tilted her head slightly and looked him in the eye. "Do they, though? I've noticed that you've been watching me for a while, and you do know my name. Granted, it wouldn't be hard for you to figure out who I am, but at the same time, you clearly know who I am, but I don't think your friends do. The way that they are acting seems to imply that they think that I'm just some random... what's the term that being used now? bunny? No definitely not that. Is it cutie? chick? Whatever. That has caught your fancy." the man blushed, then explained himself.

"Ma'm, you must understand, these are companions that I have made since coming to Macedonia. They didn't serve with me during the war and, well, I served alongside you during both the War of Shadows and the War of Heroes, ma'm. I joined late in that first conflict, I was in Altea almost the whole war, and when I finally joined, I was pretty much a reserve unit. That was not the case in the later conflict, however. By then I had gotten proper training and joined the fight alongside the Great Bull.

"And since Cain's unit was pretty much my backup whenever I wasn't beyond our own lines, that means that you saw plenty of me. You practically served under me." concluded Catria. She studied him again, and realized that yes, disregarding the fact that he looked marginally like Marth, this young man did in fact, seem familiar. In fact, Catria thought that she could remember a specific incident involving this exact person.

One of her wingmates, Marta, had been shot non-lethally during a battle. However, she lost her balance on her mount and fell off. She would have struck the ground and died if one of the soldiers hadn't coaxed their horse into a leap and caught her just before she hit the ground. In fact, it was this same young man! "I remember you! You were the one who saved Marta back when she was shot off of her pegasus!" she exclaimed. The young man nodded. "I always meant to thank you for that but I... well, I always got distracted by something else. So... I'll say it now. Thank you for saving her."

The young man smiled sadly "I was happy to help. I only wish... well, I wish that it had stuck."

Catria closed her eyes. Marta had split off from formation suddenly during the battle at the Wyvern's Dale and had been killed by a dragon. "I do too... she whispered."

"She died trying to return the favor. Did you know that?" said the man.

"What?" asked Catria, jolting upright.

"Did you not talk to her much after that incident where I saved her? She followed me like a shadow after that. She even brought me a few gifts. I'm certain that she was trying to get romantically involved. I never acted on it and pretended not to get it as... well, I figured that she was more infatuated with what I had done than me as an actual person. During that battle, that dragon had me dead to rights. She saw it and got me out of the way and critically injured it but..."

Catria once again closed her eyes and sighed, holding back tears. Suddenly, some of Marta's strange behavior made sense. She had thought it to be soldier's heart, acquired from the brush with death. "I'm truly sorry for overlooking you for so long." she told the soldier sadly. "If the reason that you've been staring at me for so long was because you've been longing to tell me of this, then..."

"Don't blame yourself for this situation that we have found ourselves in, Lady Catria. It was my own fear that prevented it for so long. As for the impetus... well, what can I say other than my friends are fools and that they mistook my concern and admiration for love."

"Admiration?" asked Catria curiously, acting as if the word had come out of left field "Do you mind explaining that bit... ummm, oh I never did ask you for your name, did I?"

"Simeon. My name is Simeon." replied the soldier. "Though there are a number of people who can't get that right for whatever reason, so I've been regularly called Simon as well. Oh, and there is also this one guy who I know who insists on calling me Peter for some unexplained reason. It doesn't matter how many times I correct him, he insists on calling me Peter. I don't know, he must be foreign or something, he keeps acting like they are the same thing." that actually managed to get a laugh out of Catria.

"And what I meant is, well, I spent so much time serving under you and observing you, I came to admire you and how you do your work. Who wouldn't admire one of the Whitewings? Who wouldn't admire a competent superior? I mean nothing by it ma'm. I mean, you understand that 'admiration' and 'love' aren't the same thing right? Because my friends clearly don't know the distinction. I admitted to them that I admired you, and that's one of the reasons that, well... we are in this situation right now" he confessed, back rigid, cheeks slightly red.

Catria nodded her head cooly. "I understand what you are attempting to say. For the record, you may think yourself a coward for failing to approach me, but I can't help but admire how courageous you being right now with how straightforward you are being with me. There you go, a platonic form of admiration. I get it. I understand that you're not trying to woo me with alcohol."

Simeon visibly sighed and relaxed somewhat "That's right. I know my place, ma'm." Catria gave him a confused look. "I wouldn't dream of even attempting such a move. You're one of the Whitewings, and I'm a common cavalryman. I know full well that I wouldn't stand a chance. I might as well set my heart on... on Empress Caeda."

Simeon said it casually, and he meant it as a final reassurance that she had nothing to worry about concerning him. And yet, for some indiscernible reason those words struck her like a spear through the heart. "I see..." she said, not letting her emotion show on her face. "I understand and appreciate the sentiment, as I can't stand flirts. Though I think you may be exaggerating the gap between us a bit. I'm not _that_ important in the long run." she said, almost mumbling it.

She took a deep drink, then said "Thank you, for telling me about Marta. I wish you well, and I hope that we meet again. For now... you've given something to ponder on." she then got up, paid her bill, and left the establishment.

* * *

As soon as she got home she threw herself onto her bed, gripped her hands tightly over her chest and began to weep silently. She wasn't even completely sure why she was doing it until after she stopped crying and she lay still, thinking. It was his mention of Caeda and his passing resemblance to Marth that had brought this on. Oh gods! She thought she was on her way towards getting over this! The pain of unrequited love and never to be fulfilled love. It had been over a year since the royal wedding, and she had more important things to be concerned about than this.

Marisha had disappeared at the same time as the Aum staff and neither had been found as of yet. Princess Minerva had abdicated. Est had packed her bags and left suddenly in the night, leaving behind only two brief notes. One in her own home that read "I'm sorry Abel, but we can never be a happy family... it was a bad union and our chance was... lost." there were tear stains across the note, but surrounding that last word especially. The other note had been found in Palla's home. It had simply read "I know".

Abel had gone missing, searching desperately for her. Palla had become overwhelmed with grief. Over the loss of both of them. Caria understood her sister's agony, but... there was a part of her that wished that Palla would move on already. It had been almost a year now, and life had to persist. Lost sister and lost lover or not. Was she heartless for thinking that? Was she a hypocrite? Because judging by her reaction to Simeon's words, she had not quite gotten over her own "lost" love herself. Or was that what it was about? Maybe it had something to do with how Palla lingered over her grief, and Catria desperately wanted to move on.

Yes, maybe that was part of what upset her. She wanted to move on, and part of the reason that she spent so much time in these social houses despite her discomfort with them was an attempt to see if she could find someone to stir her heart anew. Or at the very least, find someone who could distract her already stirred heart. But then Simeon had made that comment and... what if all the young men _worth_ her time thought like he did? That she was akin to a princess or an idol and to far out of their reach and they would burn themselves if they tried reaching out to her? That might explain why she had been having some difficulty in making friends.

Then apprehension struck her. Had she been unintentionally causing some worthy young man to go through the same grief and long distance pining and heartache all this time? He might not have meant it that way, but Simeon had accidentally raised that implication in her mind. Now she couldn't get that thought out of her mind. One part of her thought "Is it my fault how someone I don't know feels?" and another part of her felt guilty. She had to do something other than lie there in order to wring out these thoughts.

She got off the bed and seized the wooden washtub. As a sort of favor for her services, her home had been built near a small, fresh-water spring. She filled the tub with water and brought it inside. She undressed and then threw herself in. It was the middle of the night, so the room was lit only by the moon, and it wasn't a hot spring, so the water was cold, but Catria didn't care. She knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep anyways and that she wouldn't notice.

She dunked her head underwater repeatedly and watched the rivulets of water run down her body. When they stopped, she scrubbed. She scrubbed as hard as she could. Simeon looked on her like an idol. She knew that many of the soldiers viewed her as an idol, she had heard such opinions expressed before. She had never said anything about it, but she had always hate that. It made her feel fake. She was a false idol and she felt dirty as a result of all the praise and worship that she felt that she had unjustly received.

So she scrubbed away, as if soap and water could wash away a reputation. She had to do something about this. About all of this. She had to break her sister's curse and earn a "happily ever after". She couldn't spend an eternity pining and wasting away. Maybe she should address Simeon again...

* * *

She saw Simeon at the bar again later that same week. She made sure to sit down with him and have a follow up conversation. She was careful not to indicate that their previous conversation had bothered her as much as it had. Instead, she insisted on having a normal conversation with the young man, even insisting that he invite some of his friends over. It was a part of her plan to change her image. She knew that she was seen as somewhat cold and aloof, as well as an idol. What better way to spoil that image than interact with ordinary soldier and overall acting like an ordinary person?

Soon enough, this became a habit, and they all became drinking buddies. In all honesty, Catria was a bit put off by this self-imposed challenge, initially. As time passed, however, she got used to them and became rather fond of them as a whole, (even though she didn't care for some of them as individuals). Still, she was well aware that she was only seeing one side to them, and a part of her was curious towards how their true character would reveal itself.

About four months after their initial meeting, an opportunity arose. She was given an assignment and was told to bring backup. Palla had been sent away on business, and Catria's usual backup was occupied at present. Well, since Simeon and company were officially all there to help Macedon rebuild, and her mission pertained to countering a minor threat to Macedon... She decided to approach them with a request for aid. They all promptly accepted her request.

They all proved to be surprisingly competent and helpful in the field, and there were no casualties. Thus she decided that she could trust them with further missions. Due to extraneous circumstances, they wound up becoming regular field partners for Catria. One of her wingmates got married and wanted to settle, and another got pregnant from an affair, so the extra muscle was appreciated. This went on for a few years and eventually lead to Catria branching out a special invitation she had received to include them.

An invitation to what, precisely? It had been five years since Marth and Caeda had been crowned emperor and empress of Archanea, and a celebration was being held at the Millennium Court in honor of the anniversary. Catria knew that they probably didn't want all the pomp and circumstance, and that the party was due to popular demand, but she decided that she would attend anyways. While her friendship with Simeon and company was part of the reason she invited them along, she actually had a hidden motive. She wanted moral support and to test herself.

She hadn't given her love for Marth much thought in quite a while, and she wanted to see how she would react upon seeing him in person at a formal event.

Completely unaware of her ulterior motives, they happily accepted her invitation upon being given leave by their superiors.

Catria was ultimately glad that she went. There was a fondness and sadness in her heart when she gazed upon the emperor and empress standing there with their infant heirs, but... it was not painful. She still felt her love for him, but she also felt that she had finally accepted that he would never be hers. She cried a few... happy... tears and stood to the side. This did not go completely unnoticed.

Simeon noticed her tears, even while she lurked in the shadows. After a brief hesitation, he decided to ask her about it. She stared at him for a moment, then indicated that he should follow her. They walked out to a balcony and, after some hesitation, she decided that she wasn't getting out of this without admitting what she felt for the emperor. Once she finished explaining herself, Simeon said "Should you have come? With how you were crying..."

"I was crying because it was a bittersweet moment for me. I realized that it doesn't hurt anymore." said Catria smiling sadly "I can finally move on. It's just a matter of figuring out how."

"...Will you dance with me?" asked Simeon suddenly. This took Catria by surprise. It shouldn't have. They had danced before, and this was a formal event, and he was her invited guest, so it was practically a given that they would dance together. But... for some reason, the request stirred her heart up. She knew him well enough by now to know why he had suddenly asked, but still...

Being careful not to let how flustered she was show, she accepted. In the middle of the song, however, everything seemed to turn into a haze and she became focused solely on Simeon. She felt strange emotions overwhelm her. What was she feeling? She closed off the world and focused inward, focused on her emotions, trying to figure out what she was feeling. Then she realized what had happened. Her heart had finally released its grip on Marth... only for it to cleave itself immediately onto Simeon! The little traitor! Gods Damn it all to hell! She was a warrior, not a lovesick hussy who threw herself at the first man who showed her a pleasant disposition!

Any chance of her handling this realization in a calm manner quickly went out the window when, mere moments after she made this realization, the ladies Maria and Minerva approached her. Maria, who was now even more fascinated by romance and romantic ideals than she was when she was a little girl, immediately noticed that something was up. So she loudly asked the two of them if they were in a relationship. That combined with the reactions of both Catria and Simeon were enough to start the rumor mills turning right then and there.

Minerva promptly scolded her sister, then apologized to the duo. As soon as she got the chance, however, she pulled Catria to the side for a proper talk, as she too, realized that something was up. She asked Catria up front what was going on with her. Catria was reluctant to pour her heart out twice in one evening but... Minerva knew. About them. About all three sisters and their various failings of the heart. She could be trusted not to bring it up. Minerva had only brought up that she knew when Catria herself had broached the subject.

So Catria took a deep breath, and then explained what she had been trying to do with her life to her former lady. When she had finished, Minerva uncrossed her arms, put a hand on her shoulder, and said "Good for you, Catria. It looks like your hard work has paid off. You say that you've fallen for this Simeon guy, now? I'm glad that you were finally able to move on like that."

"But... but that wasn't the plan!" stammered Catria. "I wasn't trying to fall in love with someone else! I was simply trying to expose myself to other men in an attempt to... I don't know, fall out of love? I wanted to put myself in a place where I _could_ love someone else if I wanted to, I wasn't planning-"

"You of all people should know that you can't plan or control love, Catria." said Minerva drily. She sighed "Look, you've got a much better shot with this guy anyway. I have time on my hands, let me help you. You say that you don't want to turn out like your sisters? Let me help you with that." Catria hesitatingly accepted her help. That was enough for Minerva. She left Catria with Maria and Palla, then went to scout out Simeon.

She found him to be open where Catria was reserved, rather warm and friendly where Catria was generally cold and silent, intelligent, respectful, and humble. The later traits made him somewhat apologetic towards those he viewed as authority figures, even if he had nothing to apologize for. Frankly, Minerva thought that his personality would actually complement Catria's rather well. She decided then and there that she'd make sure that they wound up together.

Of course there was an obvious obstacle towards that end. While he viewed Catria as a friend, he blatantly did not believe that he stood a snowballs chance in Hell with her romantically. She had a long talk with him in order to correct that mistaken viewpoint. She made it blatantly obvious that she at least believed that he stood a chance, and then she practically ordered him to ask Catria out as soon as possible.

She returned to Catria and pulled her to the side. "I had a talk with him and gave him some encouragement. He'll probably ask you out soon." Catria made a strange sound, froze, then slowly turned crimson. "Don't make excuses, don't turn him down, accept him. Based on what I observed, I think he's perfect for you, so don't screw this up. That's an order, Catria."

* * *

Less than two weeks later, Catria and Simeon were officially courting. Upon hearing about this, Palla took a vested interest in this. All these years later and she was still devastated over what had happened with Est and Abel. As a result, she was absolutely determined to see her remaining sister happily married. Maria got involved as well (although her main interest in this was getting Catria into a fairy tale style wedding dress).

Thus Catria had a trio of strong-willed women invested in her romantic life. Much to her chagrin. Especially since Palla and Maria seemed to be in a hurry for them to "put a ring on it". The thing was, neither Catria nor Simeon were in a hurry for that. There was an unspoken agreement between them to take it slowly. They courted for three years, much to the consternation of their friends. They would've courted longer, but Minerva finally stepped in and "hinted" that three years was a long enough period for courting. They'd known each other long enough and they were either committed or they weren't. A week later, they were fiancés.

They probably would've waited another year or even longer before actually planning the wedding, but by then, their friends and family had had enough of them playing the long game. They hijacked the wedding plans, resulting in an engagement that was only four months. Something that the couple was not entirely comfortable with. But the day came anyways, dread it or not. Catria attempted to run away in embarrassment as soon as they pulled out the dress. Expecting this, Minerva grabbed ahold of her in the doorway and dragged her back inside.

Then Lena, Palla, and Maria cooperated in actually getting her into the dress. They tied a blue sash around her waist, put a white frilly choker on her neck, and tied a white headband around her forehead and attached flowers to the end. After Catria got her gloves on, they stood her in front of a mirror, and Catria expressed her opinion. "I look like a flower. Look, the hems are like petals and I'm like a colored center. I'm not exactly sure what kind, but I look like a blue and white flower. A Hydrangea? That's the first thing that pops into my head."

"Every bride wants to be a flower on her wedding day, and a blue flower is a perfect symbol for you, Catria." chirped Maria enthusiastically.

"You've said that before. What do you mean by that? What's the significance of a blue flower?" asked Catria

When Maria refused to tell, Palla smiled and slipped a piece of paper into her hand. "Here, sister. I looked into it."

Catria snatched it up before Maria could grab it and quickly read the lines before she could steal it. A slight red tinge crossed Catria's cheeks. "...Ok. Wow. As much as I hate to admit it, the symbolism actually does fit me pretty well, so I can't even be mad. Wow that..." she closed her eyes then steadied her breathing. Then she straightened her posture, adjusted the dress and made sure it fit perfectly, and looked to her bridesmaids with a slight smile. "I... actually needed to see that. I... I'm ready now."

"You sure?" asked Minerva, somewhat surprised in the sudden shift in attitude. Catria nodded. As Maria and Lena began to lead her out, Minerva held Palla back "What exactly, does a blue flower symbolize?" she asked.

Palla handed the note to her "When it comes to romance, blue flowers stand for desire, love, and the striving for the infinite and unreachable. It symbolizes hope and the beauty of things." it read.

Minerva raised an eyebrow "I'm surprised the 'striving for the unreachable' didn't dampen her spirits instead of raising them. But then again, this definition seems to fit her so perfectly... are you sure this definition wasn't made up specifically for her?"

Palla shook her head "I couldn't have made that up if I tried, Minerva. Let me just tell you, if she had compared herself in her dress to a blue rose, it would've been perfect!"

"I'll take your word for it. Let's hurry and give Catria our support, or he newfound courage might leave her, and she might not get to the honeymoon."

Palla sighed, then flatly said "They clearly love each other, but It'll be a miracle if I get any nieces or nephews out of this."

"Do you want them?" asked Minerva.

"Honestly? Yes. Actually, a part of me wishes that Est and Abel had a kid. I miss them both terribly, and if I could only raise their offspring like... I don't know, maybe I could do a better job this time? At being family."

Minerva patted her back sympathetically "Now is not the time to think of such things. This is a happy moment. Let's go share it with Catria." and they joined the wedding.

* * *

The wedding went well. Ultimately, neither the bride nor groom got cold feet, and they said their vows with composure and grace. They were hardened war veterans, it would be shameful for them to be undone by a wedding. They were still embarrassed, however, by the fact that several royal personages were in attendance, including the emperor and empress of Archanea (In fact, Marth had offered to help officiate the wedding. That, however, was one thing the couple did manage to gain control of and veto. Such a thing would've made the whole thing feel grander than they desired).

Catria departed for her honeymoon with a mix of emotions stirring in her heart. She woke up late the next morning. The sun was high in the sky, but Simeon was still asleep. He had his arm around her. She stared at his face for a bit, then gazed down the length of his body. Blushing a little, she now reached out towards the ceiling and gazed at her hand, wedding ring now affixed to it. She then looked down the length of her arm and at her own body. Then she looked around the room.

There was her wedding dress, crumpled in a chair in the corner. Where she recalled putting it. She put a hand over her heart, closed her eyes, and sighed. Well, if she had any regrets, it was to late to have them now. But... and she smiled, she didn't have any. Her heart had finally settled. She was finally satisfied. She savored the moment. She doubted that she'd ever have a moment like this again.

But she did have another moment like this, three years later when a crying, blue-haired bundle was put into her arms for the first time. Her son. Catria had never seen herself as a mother figure before, had never expected to be one. But the moment that she became one... she wouldn't trade it for the world. She had truly left her heartache behind. This Whitewing, at least, had settled with a happy ending.


	5. Why She Fled

_Here is part two of the Whitewings trilogy. This one focused on the fate of Est. While the last chapter was a breather from the emotional turmoil of the previous chapters of this series, giving a beloved character a happy ending. This chapter... isn't like that. At all. Honestly, I'd compare this chapter to a sudden knife in the gut. I'll be straight with you guys, this whole series has basically been an experiment in what I can get away with/what I am willing to do, but this chapter in particular had me a tad uneasy due to the subject manner. Let's see what you guys think. If I lacked tact or if I should increase the rating of this series, please call me out and I'll make changes._ _So as always, please leave a review._

 _P.S. a plot point here is a vision of an alternate timeline. I thought the idea was interesting, and that is the subject of the next chapter. (Though I guess the events of this chapter may put a damper on that. Still, I hope you guys can enjoy it regardless)._

* * *

Her life had come apart, and... she didn't think that she could put a cheerful face on her circumstances this time. She'd had a hard early life. Both parents deceased while she was still an infant, sisters turned to soldiery to make ends meet, she herself made a child soldier to stay connected and for the same reasons... Anyone who knew of the circumstances of her early life had long since guessed that she was destined for despair, and warned her of it. That all signs pointed that she'd live a life full of sorrow and heartbreak, and that she should be wary that life would be determined to give her the worst that it had to offer, but she had ignored those warnings.

Est had ignored the prophecies of doom and gloom and made it her life's mission to always seek out the best aspects and the best possible results from life. She was determined to always look on the bright side of life. She'd lived her life by the philosophy that circumstances wouldn't hinder her. She'd met a boy and fallen in love during a war. She'd left the soldier's life behind her. It should've been happily ever after for her. But it wasn't.

She'd been dragged back into the soldier's life twice now. First, she had left her husband's side temporarily in order to do a favor for an old friend, and had been kidnapped by Grieth and dragged to another continent for her troubles. After her sisters had rescued her and brought her home, she'd been back for about a year when Archanean troops showed up on their doorstep and took her hostage in order to force her husband to betray his homeland.

It was made abundantly obvious to her during her internment that they did not actually count on Abel surviving. They had made that especially obvious when they had told her... when they had... Est's fingers unconsciously brushed against the scars. No. She had promised herself not to think about that. She couldn't afford to waver with the... mission that she had in mind right now.

* * *

She had met many strange people over these last few years with many unusual abilities. Thus, she had learned not to immediately discredit any reports of something that seemed fantastical. She had recently heard such a report. Of a witch living near the Macedon/Dolhr border. Supposedly, she had some sort of... empathic ability. Apparently, when she came into direct contact with an individual, she could quickly ascertain how their relationships with others stood and showcase it in the form of visions. From there, she could ascertain what effect a particular choice would have, and showcase that. She'd do this for a fee, and this could help people make dramatic decisions in their life.

Supposedly, it worked something like this. Say that two women loved the same man and they knew it. And one of the friends wanted to take the path that would do the least damage to everyone in the long run. The witch would show her visions of two possible futures. One where she married the man, and one where she stepped to the side and let her friend have him. From there, she would have to make her choice.

Hearing that example was why Est had come. Her "happily ever after" with Abel hadn't been working out. Not only that, but... the way that Palla had been looking at Abel ever since her rescue... it was to significant to be mere pity or shame for being associated with him. Seeing her like this brought up flashback to previous talks Est had had with her sister about romance. Palla had always dodged the topic. Could it be... that Palla had wanted Abel too? Had she stolen happiness from her sister?

She had to know. That was why she was seeking out the witch. She couldn't ask Palla directly, and Catria would catch on and tell Palla, and Minerva would do the same. So she had to find out through more... discreet methods. It took her three separate excursions, but she eventually found her quarry.

The witch's behavior was... crotchety at best, antagonistic at worst. Given her attitude, a part of Est nagged at her to leave, warning her that this was a terrible idea. She persisted nonetheless, and asked her questions. She asked if Palla was in love with Abel. The answer was a resounding yes. She was then swarmed by visions of her romance with Abel... being viewed from a distance by a pining Palla.

As tears welled up in her eyes, she asked the witch what would have happened if she hadn't been there to get in the way, and Palla had wound up with Abel.

She was then shown a prolonged vision of the War of Shadows and subsequently, the War of Heroes turning out very differently for her family. In the vision, she successfully brought the Mercurius to the alliance army, but was fatally wounded in the process. Abel went out of his way to comfort Palla in her time of grief, and over time he came to return her love. The last image that Est saw in the vision stuck in her brain and haunted her. Palla and Abel, happy together, surrounded by their own green-haired children.

Est's hand unconsciously came to rest on her belly. Underneath her shirt, she could feel what she had desperately tried to keep hidden. The hideous, jagged scar. Then, against her will, a memory flooded her mind, a memory that she had been desperately suppressing until now...

* * *

Her capture by Grieth and rescue by her sisters had made Est feel rather... self-conscious. She had become rather afraid of being caught in a situation like that once more, and thus she stayed at her husband's side as much as possible. Abel knew about the fears that her capture had brought bout. She had actually expressed them to him. Thus they had been spending plenty of... quality time together before the Archanean Army had showed up on their doorstep. At the time that they did, Est had started to notice that she was feeling... off. It wasn't until after she had been taken prisoner that she realized that she was late.

Her warden eventually noticed and decided that was going to be a problem, and decided to take care of it. So because of him, what should have been the start of her family was the end of it. For no other reason than to be cruel and because he didn't want to provide her with more than he absolutely had to.

She remembered being drugged, and there being knives and a lot of blood and screaming and thrashing and protesting. She thought that she could also remember... seeing something else. Something that horrified her, but the memory was extremely foggy and all that came to her mind was a hazy mass and a mess. Whatever that was, what she knew for certain was that after that, she had a giant scar on her abdomen, and that she was no longer late after that.

Even still, she never felt quite right after that. She never told her sisters, and she refused to be intimate with her husband. He had yet to see her scars. The reason being... she was seriously worried that she couldn't have children anymore. In fact, she was sure that she couldn't. She was just as sure of that as she was of the fact that she couldn't be a part of her family anymore. Not after what she had witnessed.

She'd already caused to much grief, and revealing the extent of her experiences as a prisoner and how much she knew of Palla's affections would only make everyone's situation worse. It would cause even worse pain. She could no longer stay, this could no longer be home to her.

The Palla and Abel in her vision were ultimately happy together. She'd... she'd let Palla know somehow that she knew of her affections, and she'd let Abel know that they were badly matched. That should give the two of them a free opportunity to hook up, right? Especially if she exited the picture entirely.

This was the idea that stuck in her brain, and the plan she went with was "Leave two brief notes about it and leave without telling anyone". That way there wouldn't be any resistance or stopping her from doing the right thing for everyone.

Of course, she did not come up with all of this immediately. Right after her vision and flashback, she broke down sobbing, shaking violently. Then she hastily concocted her ill conceived plan. Then she quickly thanked the witch, payed her toll, hopped onto the back of her pegasus, and flew off, without giving the witch the opportunity to stop her or to speak to her further about what she had just witnessed.

A fact that caused the witch to immediately regret what she had just done. In truth, she had shown Est those visions with ill intent in her own heart. She actually had a grudge against the victors of both wars. When a famous veteran of both conflicts had arrived on her doorstep, she had perceived it as an opportunity for some "payback". She'd used her abilities to conjure up images that showed Palla at her most vulnerable. She had shown Est scenes where Palla's unrequited love was afflicting her the worst. And the timeline the witch had shown? The witch had failed to mention that this was only a single possibility, and that there were multiple other ways that it could have played out that didn't involve Est's death. The witch had intentionally showed her a result where her death resulted in a timeline that eventually had a happy ending for two of the people that she cared for most.

But then... Then Est had her flashbacks and concocted her plan. Before the witch had the chance to sever their link. Thus the witch was witness to the full force of Est's emotional breakdown. That was when she realized that her plan had gone awry. She had simply intended to cause pain to a perceived enemy. Instead, she realized, she had just completely emotionally destroyed a young woman who truly did not deserve her scorn. And due to how swiftly Est had departed, she had no means of correcting her error.

She had intended to hurt those who had hurt her, but instead she had destroyed an innocent girl and deeply wounded her own conscience forever. She wished that she could flee, but she did not have the means of the tragic Whitewing who really deserved better.


	6. A Bad Union Disabled

_This is Cyber Emblem returning from his Fanfiction hiatus. Sorry about all the delays and inactivity, but I was in my final semester of college and I had a lot looming on the horizon that made me put this to the side. But that's over now. I graduated on December the 15th. Now that a number of these pressures have been removed for now... I was quick to write this up at long last. I am participating in the annual Secret Santa fic exchange, so expect that by the end of the month. Hopefully I can make myself keep my promises now, but only time will tell._

 _I'm trying something a little different with this chapter. I'm writing this chapter as if it were an entry in somebody's journal. I hope that you guys like it, or at least find it tolerable. As always, please leave a review and enjoy!_

* * *

Destiny is a tricky thing. Sometimes certain events are set into stone and cannot be changed. Sometimes, events can be altered slightly. Still other times, events aren't influenced by destiny at all except by perhaps, a nudge here and there.

This concept is already complicated enough, but it gets much worse when you throw in an unlimited multiverse. Pretend that the "set in stone" events are an actual stone, a giant boulder in fact, put smack dab in the center of the timestream/flow of the universes. With the other variations I mentioned being similar smaller obstacles, and all the timelines flow the same around them. Or at least, they are supposed to.

You see, when you put a boulder in the middle of a never-ending stream, over time, this will take its toll eventually and the boulder will begin to erode. It's a similar concept with a multiverse in play. The "set in stone" events will erode away and no longer affect certain universes, creating completely new possibilities.

The term generally given to the multiverse of realms that have a Fire Emblem is Outrealms, and no real distinction is given to any of them. I hate that. I am careful to give each an explicit distinction, labeling them by continent, number, and letter, and giving the two types of universe distinct names.

Those universes that follow the set pattern of events? I keep the generally accepted term of Outrealms. For those that are distinctly different? I have my own term for those. Outlier-realms.

I have traversed many worlds in my long life, and I have seen a number of these Outlier-realms. Here, I shall give you an account of one of the many that I have seen.

One of the "set" events in the realms based in Archanea was the union of the youngest of the Whitewing sisters, Est, and the Panther of Altea, Abel. To the eternal heartache of the eldest Whitewing, Palla.

A union that ended badly, with Est running off to who knows where. Well, I know perfectly well where she ran off to in some cases. In one instance, I took her on as a travelling companion for a while. It ended badly. So, so badly I tried to distract her from her heartache, and instead got her brutally killed by… I digress. That isn't important right now.

Anyways, the point that I was trying to get across. In some universes, Palla did indeed get the man that her heart yearned for. I have been in one of my more somber moods for quite a while as of lately, so I will tell you of one way this happened that had an unhappy impetus.

* * *

The elder two Whitewings joined the alliance army alongside their master, the dreaded lady Minerva. Est stayed behind in order to look for an opportunity to steal the miracle sword, Mercurius. She succeeded and slipped away, but her theft of the sword was swiftly detected.

She was thus chased continuously as she made her way through what was now enemy territory, trying to make her way towards allied lines. When she was nearly there, when her sisters were within sight, one of the wyvern knights, who was wielding a throwing axe, drew near and threw his weapon, which lodged itself in her back.

It was a bad wound, but not necessarily lethal. However, this frightened her Pegasus, and it changed trajectory and began to fly lower in the sky. This put it in the range of an enemy ballistae stationed nearby. It shot her out of the sky. An so, like Icarus, she tumbled out of the sky in a rain of feathers.

Well, I guess that is a bad analogy. She wasn't prideful, her problem wasn't flying to close to the sun, and she didn't land in the sea, but flat on her back on the ground. This buried the axe deeper, turning a bad wound into a lethal one.

Her sisters were by her side in an instant. They'd seen her coming, they'd seen her fall, and at that moment of despair, their mistress was enacting bloody vengeance on her slayers on their behalf.

…Why do the fates hate Pollyanna's? I've been asking that question for many years. Rarely do I see it where the perpetually kind and cheerful ones survive. Or if they do, they rarely maintain that demeanor. It's cruel and unfair… but perhaps I'm just being biased and bitter. After all, I was a Pollyanna myself, once…. once.

But that's besides the point. But still… I have noticed that the arbiters of fate seem to hate this girl in particular. Her set fate is somber enough, and even in Outlier-realms, rarely do I see it where she gets a truly happy ending.

…But I suppose that is enough about the tragic Whitewing. This is not, after all, her story. This is the story of the aftermath, of what happened to her sisters, primarily her eldest sister, Palla.

* * *

"…Palla? Are you in there? Can I come in?" asked Abel, knocking on the door to the room she had been assigned. He heard some noise coming from inside, then the door unlocked and opened wide. Palla stood there, bleary eyed and hair disheveled, and in a state of bizarre undress.

She was wearing casual clothes instead of the armor that he had only ever seen her in. One foot bore a long sock and the other was bare. She wasn't wearing a short or skirt of any kind as far as he could tell. She wore a ridiculously large shirt that she hadn't even put on properly. The hole for head made room for both her head and one of her arms to stick out, and the sleeve on that side hung limply. He could tell that she was wearing… something beneath that, but something told him that she wasn't wearing it properly.

Under normal circumstances, he would've gotten embarrassed, offered an apology, and left. But he didn't. Palla's squadron of Pegasus knights had routinely been assigned to work alongside his cavalry unit ever since she joined them. Thus, Abel had known her long enough to realize that the fact that she would even let someone see her like this was blatantly out of character.

This told him that she was taking her sister's death very hard, and that running the other way was a terrible idea. Instead, he said "Do you want to talk to somebody about her, or do you need more time alone? I can leave, if you want."

She looked at him for a few moments, then grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. Abel looked around. The room was similarly disheveled. He noticed a locket with a picture of a woman in it sitting on the dresser. He wondered if it was of Est.

He took a closer look. No, it wasn't her. This was an older woman with turquoise hair. Abel had seen the body. Est's hair had looked more like a hybrid rose.

"Our mother. I've kept that portrait to myself for as long as I can remember. I'm the only one in our family who's seen it. If you're wondering, our father's hair was more of a magenta. Est… she took after him, in appearance and personality." said Palla, looking across the room at him.

Abel turned around and sat at the foot of the bed "Describe her." he said.

"She was always cheerful and full of boundless energy…" started Palla. She then proceeded to relate to Abel a number of stories about her sister.

After listening for more than an hour, Abel said "I'm truly sorry for your loss. For what happened to her. It sounds like she was a wonderful person. I wish that I could have met her. I probably would've liked her."

"You would've loved her." asserted Palla, looking at him sadly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"…Should I hug her? She looks like she could use a hug." thought Abel to himself. He awkwardly opened his arms wide. Palla discerned his intent, and flung herself into his chest, weeping bitterly into it. Abel awkwardly closed his arms and began to rub her back.

He heard footsteps and saw Cain standing in the hallway, staring inside. They'd forgotten to close the door.

Abel glared out at his partner "No teasing. She lost a sister. I'm not taking advantage." he mouthed.

Cain raised both of his arms "OK, I won't. I'll only do it if this actually goes somewhere." he mouthed back. He then turned around and walked the other way.

* * *

Abel spent more of his free time with Palla after this, doing his absolute best to be supportive. Minerva and Catria both personally thanked him for it.

Speaking of the younger Whitewing, in the aftermath of Est's demise, she'd been trying harder than ever to put aside to push aside her own anguish. As anyone who's even briefly studied the human psych knows, this is a terrible, potentially self-destructive idea. She ultimately did not succeed in this venture in self-harm, however, thanks to the efforts of Cain.

After witnessing the scene between Palla and Abel, he realized that he hadn't really seen anyone do the same for Catria. So he decided to try and take a page from his partner's book and help her.

At first, she tried to ignore him, but eventually, her pent up anguish and frustration boiled over and she lashed out at him, in the form of a twenty-minute rant. When she finally finished, she collapsed, falling to her knees with a thousand yard stare in her eyes, tears streaming down from them.

Cain was finally able to get her to open up somewhat and actually talk about her side of the issue for once as a result. In the aftermath of this event, the two formed a sort of odd friendship.

Once the war ended and everyone parted ways, the four maintained contact with one another. Abel set up a shop on the Altean frontier, and Palla made sure to visit whenever she could, her love for Abel having been solidified by this point. This was not requited as of yet.

Then the war of Heroes broke out. Palla spent a good portion of the conflict worrying about his wellbeing. She kept trying to find out how he was, but kept on receiving conflicting reports. She didn't know anything for certain until they reached Altea and they met face to face.

His equipment was worn out, he had received numerous prominent battle scars, and there was a haunted look in his eyes.

Apparently, the Archanean Army had come to his store and tried to conscript him. When he refused they threatened his employees. When he still resisted (because they refused to be used as pawns), they were killed and his store burned. Abel barely survived.

As a result, Abel had put back on his armor, and had been engaging in guerilla warfare against the Archanean Army ever since. He was very happy to see so many friendly faces at once, at long last.

Once Altea castle had been taken, she followed him to his room, making sure to close the door. She remembered how helpful he had been when she had been grieving, and she realized how deeply he had been hurt by recent events.

She wasn't aware of how long they talked, but what she did know, was that she woke up the next morning to Abel freaking out. At first she was confused, then she ascertained where they were, and what their condition was, and she realized what the problem was.

Last night's discussion had escalated, apparently. It ended with them sleeping together, and Abel was having a guilt trip over it. Thinking quickly, she moved forward, reached over and put her hand over his lower jaw and closed it, leaving her fingers on his lips.

"Shh Shh Shh. It's OK. Don't feel guilty. I don't mind. I'm not upset. Please don't berate yourself or accuse yourself of anything. This happened, Ok. Let's talk about this calmly and figure out our next step, where we go from here. And maybe figure out how our talk managed to turn into… this. I'm going to let go now, and when I do, I want you to act and talk rationally, and not freak out, OK?" she said, looking at him seriously. Abel nodded.

She let go, and he spoke. "I… I apologize. I… I remember thinking what a lovely friend… no I have to be honest, what a lovely woman you were and how lucky I was to have you with me now." he said shamefaced.

Palla blushed, but moved closer "I remember thinking… some man is going to be lucky in the future to have you as a wife… to have you to himself. Suddenly, I found myself studying you and then I was filled with a desire to keep you to myself, and… well… I guess that's how it happened, at least on my end." he threw his head back, eyes closed and cringed.

He looked back at her and said, with tears welling up in his eyes "I… I'm truly sorry. I really thought that I was a better person than that. I-"

Palla shushed him again. "Like I said, it's OK. I don't hold this moment of weakness against you. I'm glad to hear that I'm so desirable."

Abel was utterly perplexed. "How can you be so calm about this? Haven't I hurt your chances of finding a husband?"

Palla was quiet for several moments. She refused to look at him directly as she figured out what to say. At long last, she said "Perhaps I would be upset…" she looked directly into his eyes, her own shining brightly "if you weren't already the man I wanted."

"…What?" squeaked Abel.

Palla smiled weakly "I have loved you for a long time. It isn't just because you helped me get over Est, though that had a part in it. I had my heart set on you even before then. I simply have never had the courage to tell you until now. That's why I'm not upset. Waking up in bed with you is a sort of dream come true for me."

She looked sideways. "If anything, you should be upset with me" she said sideways. "Yea, you were consumed by lust… but I almost certainly sensed it and let you act it out in order to fulfill my own desires. You've been through a lot recently, you've got the 'moment of weakness' excuse. I on the other hand… it's not like you could've actually forced yourself on me. If I wanted to I could've stopped you, but I didn't. If anything, I'm the one to blame here. Blame me for this."

Abel stared at her for several long moments while she looked away shamefaced. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "I don't want to blame you." he said. That would be discrediting your own issues, and the things that are most certainly my fault that you are glossing over. If we are going to assign blame… let's just agree that… after a long, exhausting talk where our emotions were at a peak, we BOTH let our desires override our better judgment. We're BOTH guilty here, and neither of us were thinking straight. End of story."

"…I guess that that sounds fair." said Palla after mulling this over. "Well, know that this happened, and I've… told you how I feel. What now?"

"I don't know. We work together to figure something out. I don't know if I actually requite, you know." said Abel "Let's try a former courtship… and see were it goes."

"OK." said Palla, heart leaping.

* * *

They tried to enter a relationship normally and publically… but immediately fumbled it. It wound up turning into more of a love affair with elements of courtship than a proper courtship; a fact that they were very desperate to keep hidden from Cain and Catria.

As they discovered the night after Hardin's death, they needn't have bothered. Gharnef sent assassins into the castle in the middle of the night and everyone hurried out of bed to go and counter them. (In this world, Gharnef's maiden trick wasn't pulled immediately, and with the timing, and how exhausted everyone was, it wouldn't have been practical to set out immediately. He did this to buy extra time.)

The duo hurried out of their room, trying to get properly dressed as quickly as possible… and bumped straight into Cain and Catria, who were doing the exact same thing. There was a prolonged awkward silence as each party realized that they had just caught one another and been caught themselves. Neither couple bothered to call the other out, as they all realized that it would be hypocritical.

After the situation was resolved, everyone stepped to the side and explained themselves. As it turned out, Cain and Catria had gotten drunk and slept together at the tail end of the War of Shadows. Twice. After the second time, the two decided that they might as well make it a regular thing, and they'd been engaged in a sort of casual affair ever since.

Later, when it was just the two sisters alone, Catria congratulated Palla. She knew that she had had her eye on Abel for a long time. "Don't congratulate me just yet. Neither of us is certain if this will last. We are still working things out. I mean, how certain are you about things on your end?" probed Palla

"I'm not really certain about anything anymore. Est's… What happened to Est threw certainty out the window for me." declared Catria, taking a large sip of her cocoa. "Now I… I'm just taking whatever comes my way. Taking life as it comes and enjoying what I can."

Something about the way she said this made Palla nervous. She started at her sister for several moments. "Catria, have you been careful? You know, taking precautions?"

"Eh." said Catria, holding out her hand, making a "so-so" motion with it.

"Catria, you're going to wind up pregnant, and utterly unprepared for it." said Palla, alarmed.

"If I do, I do. I don't think anything like that will happen for some time though." said Catria casually, leaning back in her chair.

Days later, during routine visit to the healer after battle, Catria was informed that she was at least a month and a half pregnant. Her blasé attitude evaporated pretty damn quickly.

Thus, right at the heels of the War of Heroes, Palla and Abel had to help Catria and Cain plan a rushed wedding. The former two never let the latter two forget it.

During this time, Palla and Abel spoke seriously about their relationship and where they stood in regards to one another. The end result was that, a year later, Cain and Catria were preparing their maroon-haired daughter for their wedding.

This couple… I wish that I could say that it was a perfect relationship, that a bad union had been disabled by Est's death and replaced by a better one… but I'd be lying if I said that. These two had their rough patches, mainly due to how they got together in the first place, and mainly on Abel's part.

But then again, what couple doesn't go through some rough times now and again? Despite having a somewhat rocky marriage, they lasted. Why? Because in this universe, the wife was willing to TALK about her damn problems. As a result of actually being able to work things out, they had three kids together.

…Damn it. Now I feel even worse for Est. I can never seem to find an Outlier-realm where she gets a definitively happy ending. Only a worse one or a bittersweet one. Maybe if I keep searching… but that is a thought for another time.

For now, that is all I care to relate about this realm. I hope you got some… I don't know, amusement out of this? Will anybody even find and read this thing? It doesn't matter.

For now, this is the wandering Armsmaster signing off from his story log of this universe. Personal Designation: FE-AVJY-Outlier: 00001215 D.


	7. Knave More Deserving Than Nobles

_And here I FINALLY got around to writing this. I actually forgot my original idea behind this due to all the delays, so I had to reinvented this chapter. Oh well, better late than never. This is the last HDoA chapter I currently have planned, though I'm not going to mark it as complete, because I may add to it later down the line. I'm going to write at least two more chapters of "Fall of Our Fathers", then I intend on starting a new ongoing. A non-FE one. I plan on alternating between that and the remaining chapters of Fall. Once that's done, I have a different FE fic idea that I want to work on. An inter-game crossover that isn't Heroes or Warriors. Let's see how that goes._

 _In other news, part of the reason for all the delays is because I created an AO3 account at the start of the year, and have been crossposting there. I have also been publishing my rewrite of Crusaders Reborn there. I'm actually rewriting it here too, but this site isn't giving any notifications as I'm posting the new versions of chapters over the originals. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this semi-finale of HDoA. As always, reviews are appreciated. See you next time!_

* * *

Lena had never longed to be desirable, unlike many of the ladies at court. Rather, her main concern had always been to do some good in the world. But due to the facts of life that were her status, her own views, and the views of most of those who shared her status, combined with the fact that she was inherently a desirable woman complicated life for her.

Prince Michalis proposed to her during a formal meeting one day. Not because he loved her or because he admired her heart or works, but because he believed that a union with her could further his ambitions. It did not help that it was immediately assumed by the majority of the court that she would accept, and was thus treated with envy by her fellows. This thus harmed her chances of getting in their good graces and gaining their assistance in helping her do her good works.

She couldn't stand it. To stay in the court of Macedon and to be wed to Michalis... would lead to a life that she deeply resented. So she fled in order to do her works elsewhere. It was during her time doing this that she was captured by the Soothsires and met Julian. Oh Julian.

Somehow, she hadn't caught on during their escape that the reason that he was helping her was because he had fallen in love with her. With time and with some help from some extra friendly eyes in the form of some fellow Macedonians, it became increasingly obvious what the reason for Julian's change of heart was, and by the time that the War of Shadows ended, she knew for certain that Julian loved her.

She did not, however, tell him that she knew. She had two justifications for this. The first was due to their different stations in life. He was an ex-criminal, and she was a prominent noblewoman, and a woman of the cloth at that. There would be significant backlash if they were ever to get together. From the nobles and the church. The nobles never took kindly to marriages outside of the station, and the church made it difficult for one to break the vows of chastity once made, unless there was a good reason. They had been very willing to nullify her vow in the case that she married Prince Michalis, but she was certain that her refusal would sour them towards her finding a different husband.

But honestly? Those fears were truly an excuse. After the stunt that she had pulled in the royal court of Macedon, she no longer was particularly concerned with the anger of the nobility. As for the church, she knew that there would be understanding fathers in the church who would be willing to release her while still letting her act as if she were still a sister.

No, in truth, the reason that she never discussed love with Julian is because somewhere in her heart, she had decided that she never wanted to marry, but she didn't have it in her heart to tell him. Her clerical work had certainly made marriage unlikely for her, but Michalis's attempt at "wooing" her had soured her towards the idea of ever marrying. No, she desired to spend the rest of her days as a wandering cleric, and matrimonial duties would prevent that.

* * *

But now... after Julian had worked by her side for years, and had saved her from Medeus's clutches, she couldn't deny it any longer. She now shared his reason for staying around him. She loved him. And her reason for not uniting with him now seemed even less significant.

They had been running an orphanage together ever since the War of Shadows concluded, so technically... with a significant exception or two, she had already settled down and started performing matrimonial duties. At this moment she realized, they had reached the point where she needed to stop dodging the subject and face it head on. Julian had been unfailingly nice about it and had never tried to force the issue, but he deserved an answer to his long unasked question "does she love me?"

And so as she was rescued from Medeus's clutches at the end of the War of Heroes, she confessed. A brief, "I've been spoiled, I'm sorry, but I do love you." confession initially, necessary as Medeus was breathing down their necks. But once they had a moment to themselves, she confessed in detail her true feelings, how long she had felt them, and why she had waited so long to come forward with them. Julian listened intently with bated breath. He said nothing, but his heart soared.

"I honestly did figure out your 'reason' during the war of Shadows, you can thank Est's careless bluntness for that. Forget what others may say, after all that you've done, I think that those who matter should approve of us being together."

Julian smiled, then looked pensive "Are you sure about that? What about Matthis? I'm certain that he won't approve. You do realize that he's going to try to kill me, right?"

Lena looked annoyed for a second, then she actually broke out into a smirk. "He'll make an empty threat in that direction, but do you honestly think that he'll actually try? That would require a little something called 'effort' on his part. And well, let's be honest, since when does my brother put effort into anything without coercion? He won't be a problem... honey."

Julian looked startled for a moment, then he broke out laughing.

* * *

Matthis actually did put in more effort into preventing their marriage than they were expecting. In the form of constant protests and nagging, all the way through their wedding day. In fact, the last time he did this, the bridesmaids were in the middle of helping her to put on her wedding dress. He didn't care, he marched right into the tent and tried to dissuade her from going through with the wedding one last time.

"Why weren't you banned from attending again?" was the unspoken question on the tip of everyone's tongue. Even Lena's.

"He's a rogue. A former criminal with no real prospects. You're a respected blue blood with any man of higher standing that you want available to you. Why can't you go with a nobler choice? You've had other suitors, why weren't any of them good enough, but... but this knave was? I mean, you were outright proposed to by-"

"Don't you dare say his name." snapped Lena impatiently.

Matthis actually froze for a moment "I just... why him? What makes him so deserving of your hand?"

Lena sighed "Well, for starters, for most of the nobles I'm either a prize or a pretty face to win over. That's how it was with... him. With Julian, it was my character that he fell in love with first and foremost. I know for a fact that is what he fell in love with, and I'll be honest, being judged on that foremost by a man is a dream come true. I'm as certain of that as I am of the fact that most of the other nobles couldn't care less about my character. Don't believe me? Take a minute and remember the general reaction to Michalis's proposal." Matthis was silent. He certainly remembered.

"I won't deny the ex-criminal part. He was a part of the Soothsire for a while. But do you know what that means? He had friends among them, friends that he betrayed when he switched sides. You were never a part of these conversations, but I've had several long conversations with him over his mixed feelings regarding his betrayal of his longtime companions. He clearly believes in our cause, but clearly cared about his former comrades too. In such a case, I bet you'd imagine that he'd pressure me to make it worth it, huh? That he'd been pushing me in this direction for years?"

Lena shook her head "While I've known that he loved me for years, he never said anything out loud, and never acted on it beyond helping me where he could. I proposed to him, and I am the one who set today up. And you know, there were numerous times in the past where he felt that his past might drag me down, and he offered to leave. He meant it to. But I didn't let him. He isn't forcing me to do anything I don't want, Matthis, so leave me alone and let me get married, PLEASE." she cried out, voice quavering. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

Matthis looked shaken, but he wouldn't take a hint. "...It's a con. He's an ex-von. He knows how to con innocent maidens, that's how he made his career."

"Actions speak louder than words, and his actions aren't those of a deceiver." declared Palla harshly.

"And Julian's actions have proven that his change of heart was genuine, just as your sister said. At this point, he's more than made up for any previous crimes. In fact, at this point, _YOU_ , are more of a criminal than he is. After all, I seem to recall hearing that you colluded with the enemy out of cowardice. TWICE." snapped Minerva.

"Frankly, I don't see why she has to defend her choice in husband from you. _She_ clearly isn't the one here that suffers from poor judgment. Now why don't you do us all a favor and get the hell out of here before you make the bride legitimately cry, and not from happiness."

Matthis promptly hung his head in shame and left. He still had enough guts (somehow) to show up at the wedding ceremony itself. Though when the priest reached "or forever hold your peace", he realized that everyone in the pews was giving him a death glare. As a result, he didn't even dare to breath, much less object to this union. And so they were wed without another issue.

* * *

The wedding was held at the royal palace in Macedon, and most of the happy couple's friends were there, along with all of the children from the orphanage. Julian and Lena would go traveling around Archanea for their honeymoon, while Minerva and Maria, and some of the guests would bring the children back to the orphanage the following day. So, that night, the Macedonian palace was filled with orphans, wedding guests, and the newlyweds.

This setup eventually led to an awkward situation late that evening. One of the orphan children figured out where the newlyweds were staying the night, and he went to their door and knocked on it in order to make a request of his foster parents, not remembering that he was supposed to ask Minerva or Maria for things at night from now were a couple of minutes of awkward silence and the kid making noises until Minerva hurried over and grabbed the child and spoke an apology through the door.

In the room itself, this warranted as discussion between the newlyweds. "...Julian. I just thought of something. Is the lock on our room back at the orphanage very good? And more importantly... is our room soundproof, or at least decently so?"

Julian froze for a moment "You know what... crap I didn't think of that." he rolled over and started fumbling for his clothes. "It'll be awkward, but I'll have to discuss that with someone. Probably Minerva. I feel most comfortable discussing that kind of thing with her. Maybe she can look into that while we are gone."

Lena grabbed him "Tomorrow. You can do that tomorrow. She's gone now, and they aren't leaving before us anyways. Stay with me, this is supposed to be our night. If this is going to be a problem that can't be fixed, then it's only at times when we are away that we can safely presume to have the night to ourselves." She said, rubbing her head against his neck.

"Uh... Lena, what are you..."

She looked at him and made a pouty face "I just put aside my old vows. It's my wedding night... am I not allowed to want my husband's attention or to misbehave for once?"

"...I just wasn't aware that you had that in you. That's all." said Julian, and he kissed her.

* * *

Their trip got stretched out in some places in ways that hadn't been planed originally. As a result, they were gone for approximately two months. They had to get rehabituated to taking care of children quickly. It wound up being good practice, however, because as they soon discovered, Lena had come home pregnant.

Eight months later, the entire population of the orphanage was crowded at her bedside while she held a little red-haired boy in her arms for the first time.

The young couple had to learn how to balance their love for all of their foster children and for all of their blood children, for two more followed Gregorian. Roman and Hellen.

Julian did his damndest to prove that he had earned the trust he had been given by throwing himself into their care. He excelled at doing so, for he was unanimously perceived as a magnificent father. Even by his would-be-rivals.

On occasion, some of Lena's old peers would stop by the orphanage in order to see why she would choose such a life for herself. While many didn't care for him, they could see that the children adored him, and the didn't have anything truly bad to say about him. Eventually, even Matthis was won over.

How much had Julian grown. He'd gone from a simple knave to a greatly loved and respected man, more deserving of the good things in life and of the rewards in life than many nobles.


	8. A Tumultuous Foreign Affair

_So... I FINALLY got around to finishing this. I've had a new addition to my work schedule, and a new console to play in my free time (I finally got a Switch for those who don't know) so I've gotten a lot busier and have had less free time for writing in the past month, so that's my newest excuse. As for this chapter... it was supposed to be a simple Kliff/Linde fic. The end result... It's a bit of a mess (though it's now much better than the original draft) and I doubt that everyone is completely in character, but at this point... I just want to publish this thing. It's done, here you go. If anyone has some advice on how I can improve this thing, I'm all ears. I've still got long term plans, but no idea when they'll ever be executed, and I have no idea what my actual next fic will be. It's a secret/surprise to everybody!_

* * *

...so in conclusion, I feel that I've just about learned all that I can about magic in Valentia and seen as much of it as I'd want. So now... I'm longing to try something a little different. So, if you would allow me, I would like to live at your magic academy, which would give me the opportunity to both learn something new and see something new." explained the young man in the red vest to King Marth and Queen Caeda.

"I don't see a reason why we shouldn't allow it. After all, you did come here with outstanding recommendations, and we are always open to our neighbors from across the sea." said the king, looking at his wife, who nodded in agreement. "Therefore, we shall allow it. Welcome to the Millennium Court, Sir Kliff."

The young man bowed politely and turned to walk out. He wasn't particularly concerned with the number of curious eyes staring him down at the time. After all, he was a foreign mage from a foreign land where the rules of magic were different. It was to be expected that he'd be regarded as a curiosity.

Then he had a thought. He probably should pay a little attention, as some may come to talk to him later, and he would have to address them in an at least somewhat cordial matter. After all, if he was curious about this land, and was planning on asking questions of the natives they were doubtless curious about him and were planning the same.

So he decided to take a quick glance around and start to get a measure of his new... should he refer to them as colleagues?

There was a green haired man in a blue cloak standing near the throne, holding hands with a woman who resembled the king. She was wearing a white dress and a tiara. Kliff caught the glimmer of wedding rings on their fingers. Ah, those must be the masters of the magic academy. His gaze wandered. He saw a knight in red armor with red hair, and a young looking man with green hair carrying a bow standing guard. Those couldn't be the only guards, there must be more hidden, Kliff presumed.

He looked to one end of the room and spotted a young girl with green hair. She waved at him, so he raised a hand and did a little half-wave in return. Then he looked to the other end of the room and spotted a young woman in pink. Even though he normally didn't care about such things, he did stop for a moment when he realized how pretty she was. "Huh. She must be the court darling." he thought to himself. Then their eyes met and each realized that they had been, for all intents and purposes, sizing each other up.

They each made a sheepish hand gesture and turned the other way. "Who am I, Gray? What the heck was all that about?" he asked himself as he left the palace. He'd wish in the future that he'd treated this moment with a bit more dignity.

* * *

Linde had been enthusiastic about the prospect of a magic academy being established in the Achanean capital. With such a thing in place, she could hone her art without leaving her friends so far behind. So she had enthusiastically signed up as one of the first students and moved to the capital on a permanent basis. A couple of things, however, put a damper on this new status quo for Linde. First of all, Merric's marriage to the lady Elice... bummed her out to say the least, and then... she wound up having a number of unwanted suitors and eyes focused on her at the academy.

While she liked the idea of being regarded as pretty, the _way_ that she was stared at by both men and women made her... rather self conscious. She just couldn't put her finger on why though. She was officially starting to get sick of this new status quo... even though it barely had had enough time to become a status quo. She wanted a change to come along, and a mage from an entirely different continent was certainly something different. She learned of his arrival ahead of time, so she made sure to be in the audience chamber so that she could catch a glimpse of him and get a read on him. She'd have so many questions for him!

The vibe that she got from his interaction with Marth and Caeda was... he was rather uptight and serious. He had looked at her like others had, but he seemed to be put off by the fact that he had even done it. Perfect! She won't let one awkward moment hinder her from learning anything fascinating. Yea, if only they'd share only ONE awkward moment.

* * *

They met formally soon after Kliff had settled into the magic academy. She found him practicing his spells in front of an open tome. That he wasn't even looking at.

She greeted him enthusiastically. Kliff casually glanced behind, then looked away, then glanced back quickly. "Oh, it's you." he remarked.

"What's with that reaction?" asked Linde. "Listen, I know that our first encounter in the palace was... not great, but we were both being weird, so let's just throw that to the wayside and start over, OK? Hi, I'm Linde. What's your name?" she asked him.

"...Kliff." he said.

Ignoring the long pause, she resumed her greeting. "Well, it's very nice to meet you Kliff." He just stared quietly at her for a few moments.

"What, what's with that? Is responding physically painful for you?" asked Linde

"I'm sorry... but I can't help but wonder, what the heck is up with that getup? You were wearing it last time too. Is it some kind of special outfit for female mages that they have on this continent?" asked Kliff.

"It is special, yes. But it's special because it's unique." said Linde proudly, missing Kliff's tone (perhaps intentionally). "This outfit was a gift to me from my late father. I wear it proudly and as often as I can."

"A gift from your LATE father, you say? Let me guess... he died before you hit puberty? Say... when you were around... I don't know, twelve or so? And that was one of the last things he bought you before something went terribly wrong?"

Linde jolted in surprise "Yes... my father was murdered by Gharnef when I was 12. Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

Kliff raised an eyebrow "let me ask you a question, do you have a problem with people constantly staring at you, and yet you somehow can't figure out the source?"

"...Yes. Why?" she replied in a tone indicating that she did not like where this was going.

"I have to spell it out, don't I? It's the dress. You've either got to make significant changes to it or put it away for good."

"What."

"I'm going to be that guy, aren't I? Fine, I get why you'd want to keep wearing that thing, but it's blatantly obvious that your'e a girl in her late teens wearing something that was designed for a preteen and hasn't done a good enough job adjusting it for her growth. What, did you get frustrated and make the leg slit continuously bigger as you got older because it wouldn't adjust quite right and that was the only way you could make it fit? Well, now its two high, all I have to do is fire off one good spell that will create a lot of wind in this room, and I bet I would see everything underneath, and by the looks of it, I don't think that I'll see fabric like I should. And you've stretched the rest of the fabric a bit thin, so now it looks a bit translucent. Based on the way you've been talking and acting, I doubt you're a loose woman, but due to the state of that dress, you sure look like it. Sorry if you hate me for telling you that, but that's the honest truth."

Linde pulled down the hem of her dress with one arm, and covered her chest with the other "Seriously? _**That**_ is the the first thing you want to tell a lady you just met? Everything wrong with her precious, priceless, favorite outfit? Are you TRYING to make an enemy for life?!"

Kliff just shrugged "Whether you like me or not is irrelevant. I always wanted to travel around, and I never particularly cared about keeping friendships, if I did, I wouldn't have left everyone I knew behind so easily. I just want to see things and learn things, and I hate seeing petty and ridiculous affairs drone on. I grew up with a selfish, petty and ridiculous mother, and I came from a continent that went to war with itself because the southern half was greedy and lazy and the northern half was its polar opposite. Well, that's putting it really really simply, but that's what it boils down to. If I'm staying here for a while, I'd have to deal with you being oblivious to a bunch of people staring at you or catcalling you or something, right? Yea, no, I'm putting my foot down now."

Linde stopped and stared at him. "Thats... a sad way to live."

Kliff shrugged "But it's a way to live." he said, and he resumed to practice his magic. Then he stopped and said "You know, I've noticed that there seem to be a few spells missing from your collection."

"Oh, like what?" asked Linde, full of tranquil fury.

"Like this one", he said, unleashing the Valentian version of an Aura spell.

Linde recognized it immediately in spite of its regional differences. "Wait, wait, hold on. Was that an Aura spell just now?!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"...yes..." said Kliff, having no idea where SHE was going with this.

" **HOW?!** " she exclaimed excitedly.

"How, what do you mean how? Is there something special about that spell over here?"

"YES! There is only one copy of that tome. The whole reason Gharnef helped Medeus was because he was jealous over the fact that it was given to my father instead of him! My father passed it on to me when he died, only women can use it." she explained.

Kliff made a face. "How exactly did your father die again? You seem to imply that he was murdered, but it sounds like he gave you a lot of things at just about that time." before Linde could even formulate a response, he continued "Also, why would it be locked to females? If that is the case, how did he use it? You said that the tome was meant for him, right? So I'm going to go by the assumption that he did something to that thing to keep it out of the hands of the guy who murdered him."

"That's actually a fairly good guess." admitted Linde. "I've had similar discussions with... friends, and we've come to a similar conclusion. That he put a special spell on it in order to prevent the jealousy that manipulated the politics behind two wars from using it."

Kliff shook his head "all that because he couldn't get his hands on a book that contained a spell that talented Valentian spellcasters can use quite readily. It would have been simpler for him to come to Valentia and learn our magic system if he wanted the Aura spell so bad. Though of course, that makes me wonder... since I learned the Aura spell in Valentia... WITHOUT any tomes involved... would that work as a loophole for the lock? Look, I know that I didn't put any effort into a good first impression, but... I'm to curious now, could you let me try it?"

Linde handed it to him "Go right on ahead, you've gotten me curious as well. I kind of want to see if this'll actually work."

Kliff looked the tome over, opened it, and attempted to cast a spell a few times, but to no avail. "So... you can't use it despite the fact that you can use Aura in Valentia? Maybe this is more powerful version of that spell."

"Actually... it's actually freakier then that." said Kliff.

"What do you mean?"

"You noticed how I tried to cast Aura a few times? I didn't just try to use the book, I tried to cast my own version of Aura while simply holding it as well, and nothing. I got the usual sensation when I cast the spell... then it was like I suddenly slammed face first into some sort of wall, and I couldn't even use the version of Aura that I'm used to. Whatever your father did to this, it's extremely effective and he thought it through, he must've been quite the talented sorcerer.

"He was..." said Linde fondly. "Wait... it didn't strip you of your ability to cast Aura altogether, did it?!" she exclaimed, suddenly alarmed.

Kliff handed the tome back and then successfully cast Aura. "Huh. Interesting." they said simultaneously.

"You know, your father and his academic background seem rather interesting. It might be worth at least hearing about, and I'm sure that you'd love to talk about him some more. Not right now though, I'm a bit busy, and I need to get back to what I was doing, but later, can we have a proper conversation. An academic one? I'm not that much for small talk or beating around the bush."

"Yea, I figured that out on my own." said Linde dryly. "Yea, fine, I'll agree to that. I'll see you later Kliff." she said, and she began to walk away. Then she paused and turned about and said. "Ah, wait, I almost forgot somehow. One more thing, Kliff."

"Yea?" suddenly, he found himself face down on the floor with a lump developing on the back of his head where Linde had struck him with all her might with her tome.

"It doesn't matter if you have a point or are giving good advice. You NEVER talk to a woman like you did when I first greeted you, and you especially don't act so cruelly about something that is so precious to her. Don't you EVER do something like that again." she growled. Then she resumed her previous demeanor "Just keep that in mind, and I'll see you later." and walked off, leaving Kliff lying of the floor, rubbing his jaw where it had impacted the floor and wondering what the Hell had just happened.

* * *

Linde had dinner with the royal couple that night, and the subject of her interaction with Kliff came up. Caeda crossed her arms angrily and proclaimed "Well! That was exceedingly rude of him! I ought to have a talk with him!"

"It's OK, I've got it handled. By the look and sound of it, he prefers his studies over socializing. Now that I know what he's like, I think that I can deal with him on my own. After all, once we started talking about a subject of interest, he was a lot more pleasant. And don't worry, I'm not going to let him walk over me with rude comments. I didn't let him get away with what he said about my outfit. What's your opinion on that, anyways, you never specified, was he right?"

Caeda hesitated and took a long, slow drink from her glass. "Well... He shouldn't have said anything like that to you first thing... Marth, you've been quiet, is there anything that you'd like to add?"

The Lord of Archanea gave his wife a look as he thoughtfully swirled his glass. He remained quiet for a few moments more, then he said. "You know... my mind went down that path a long time ago, I just decided that I shouldn't say it in public."

"What... what do you mean by that?" asked Linde, not liking where this was going.

Marth swallowed his wine in one gulp, and marched onwards into the dragon's den. "From the beginning, I actually thought. 'That... doesn't look like something appropriate enough to be considered a gift from the Pontifex to his daughter, something must be off. Then I remembered that Gharnef had begun _his_ campaign long before we had begun ours and that your father would've been near the top of his hit list. So I figured that you were so blinded by sentiment and nostalgia that you hadn't realized that you were still wearing something designed for a little girl."

Caeda looked at the table "sounds about right, that's about what I figured."

Linde's face turned crimson "Why didn't you say anything?!" she burst out.

"I... you're a girl, and I figured that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to say anything about it, especially considering the circumstances. I always figured that one of your female friends would catch on and explain it to you. Are... are you honestly telling me that NO ONE has ever actually brought this up before now?"

Linde simply moaned as her head dropped to the table. Marth and Caeda shared a pitying look. "No wonder I keep getting stared at." she moaned. She lifted her head from the table, eyes glistening, and asked "are you telling me that I need to stop wearing this altogether?"

Again, the husband and wife looked at one another "Actually, your'e probably to attractive for a change of clothes to really do much in regards to people staring, and you don't necessarily have to give up on that dress." said Marth as Caeda nodded in agreement.

"Wait, did you both just casually agree that I-"

"We have a lot of talented tailors around here. It probably wouldn't be all that hard to get that dress overhauled into something more traditionally appropriate. It might not necessarily look the same and there will probably be a lot of additions, modifications, changes and the like, but it would _technically_ be the same dress." suggested Caeda. "If you do that, you could keep on wearing it without feeling self-conscious."

This got Linde's attention "Could you have that done for me?"

Caeda nodded "As soon as you'd like."

* * *

The modifications were made quickly. The next time that Kliff saw her, he was startled by how... different and ornate it looked.

"Wait, you actually listened to me?! I thought you were mad!?"

"Just because you were insensitive with your delivery doesn't mean that you didn't have a good point. I asked some of my friends about it... and it turns out, they thought the exact same thing, but they had just been afraid to tell me. So... thanks for that."

"Oh... your'e... welcome." said Kliff hesitatingly.

Linde attempted to make some small talk with him before they launched into the promised subject. Kliff was utterly awkward about it, and he kept looking away.

"You're not very good at making friends, are you?" said Linde at last.

"No, I'm not. I'm not very good at maintaining them either. If I was, I wouldn't have left home and the people I grew up beside and fought a war beside so easily." he remarked.

"Did... did you have a falling out or something?" asked Linde

"Not exactly. I wanted to see the world and do my own thing, and there were just a bunch of... little things... about the people around me that irritated me that added up. Alm and Celica were coming here in order to drop off the Whitewings anyways-"

"The Whitewings! How do you know them?!" exclaimed Linde

"I don't know, maybe if you let me continue, I'll tell you." snapped Kliff. "Their youngest sister apparently got kidnapped by Valentian pirates a couple of years ago, and they came to rescue her, and thus they all fell in with Celica. I was with Alm, so personally, I never got to know them. Anyways, we were coming to bring them over, and we found a village with some Valentian immigrants and... some rumors that we decided to investigate.

Kliff shuddered "After I recovered from THAT little adventure, I decided enough was enough and that I wanted to forge out on my own. They did catch as I was leave me and insist on giving me a letter of recommendation, but I'm pretty sure that only Alm and Celica knew that I was going, and I don't think even they know where I am, exactly.

"Huh... so what exactly ARE your issues?" probed Linde

"Well first of all, there's Alm and Celica themselves, their entire dynamic just bothers me because you see..." and he launched into an explanation of their circumstances. "I just feel that them hooking up like that is... off. They grew up to have two very different ideologies, and the first thing that they did when they met again was fight. I feel they are moving to fast on feelings from when they were kids and I'm not even sure that they are compatible. Their relationship makes more sense politically than romantically in my opinion, but every keeps acting like its SO romantic or some junk like that. I feel that there is going to be some kind of fallout from this someday and, I don't want to be anywhere near it."

"OK... I can see where you are coming from with that." admitted Linde. What else.

"Frankly, I feel that everyone from my village acts like a child trying to be an adult, even my mother. Uggh... mother. If I settled within a hundred leagues of her, she'd be trying to leach off of me, she's so selfish. If I went home after the war, she'd probably try to get me stuck in an arranged marriage with/arrange a baby trick to get me with Faye. Won't that make my life! No thanks, I'd rather take an arrow to the temple."

"Well, that's rather mean, don't you think? What's wrong with her other than the fact that she isn't up to your standards?" asked Linde with a bit of an edge to her voice.

"How about the fact that she obsesses over Alm to the point that _literally_ everyone she knows is freaked out by it. And I do mean everyone. Her parents, her closest friends, even Alm himself. Seriously, that girl's head is devoid of any thoughts that aren't related to Alm in some way. If her head was a cave, you could run a horse through the massive cavity which is the vast parts of her brain that aren't dedicated to Alm and hear the thunder of hoofbeats everywhere, the empty parts are so massive. I'm not getting stuck with THAT for the rest of my life. As for everyone else..." he rattled off a list.

"You know... if you give it some time, you may grow to miss them. How will you feel if you want to go back to them, but you have the guilt of having constantly demeaned them hanging over your head?" pontificated Linde.

"...Maybe you have a point. But... we weren't her to talk about me in the first place. Can we please get to the relevant subject. I came here to talk academics, not flirt and tell my life story."

Linde half snorted, half laughed at that. "Is that what you're calling what we're doing? You think think that we're flirting? I don't think that we're flirting."

"I don't know, look, can you please just tell me what I want to know?"

"Alright, fine, what exactly is it that you want to know?"

* * *

"What _I_ want to know is how the Hell you went from being obnoxious and barely tolerating each other to routinely screwing?" asked the irritable young brunette man sitting across the table from a now significantly older Kliff.

Kliff sighed "First of all, that didn't happen right away. It took us about half a decade before our relationship reached the point where you could've possibly been born. Second of all... I'm honestly not sure how we reached that point either. I wasn't actively trying to get with her, it just sort of happened over time. Thirdly... I can't believe that you just referred to your parents getting together in that manner. I get that our first few meetings were rather... irreverent, but that doesn't excuse you Moher. Letty isn't the happiest person either, but she responded a hell of a lot better than you just did. What's your problem, son?"

"What do you mean, what's my problem? You know very well what my problem is, so I'm not going to even dignify that question with a proper response. So are you going to tell me what _I_ want to know or what? Cause I didn't ask about how you met mom, and frankly it sounds like you were two work friends who eventually had a drunken affair and decided to get married because of it."

Kliff just sighed and asked, "Do you really think that that attitude would be appreciated in King Alm's court, Moher?"

"It sounds like they appreciated _your_ attitude just fine. Besides, over there, I won't have a _reason_ to have an attitude. I'll be away from you. So I'll be fine."

Kliff sighed "Clearly I can't stop you, so I'll just let you make your own choices and mistakes. I wish you all the best in Valentia, son."


End file.
